Earhart's Electra Found?

TIGHAR is able to share details of our search for a conclusive answer to the Earhart mystery thanks to the international agreement signed in Washington, DC on March 20, 2012. The Republic of Kiribati, the sovereign nation of which Nikumaroro is a part, has granted TIGHAR the exclusive right to conduct research, search, and recovery operations related to the Earhart disappearance within the national borders of Kiribati. No one is authorized to undertake Earhart related search, recovery of artifacts or research within the boundaries of Kiribati (including Nikumaroro) without authorization from both the government of Kiribati and TIGHAR.

Thanks for the great info on this intriguing case. Very very interesting.

Apparently a young girl in Florida ALSO picked up Amelia Earhart’s pleas for help after the crash.

“A 15 year old girl – whom we’ll call “Betty” for now – was living in St. Petersburg, Florida in the summer of 1937. One afternoon in July – the exact date is not known – at about 3 p.m. Betty was sitting on the floor in front of her family’s radio console. She liked to listen to music and kept a notebook in which she jotted the words to her favorite songs, made notes of current movies and drew pencil sketches of glamorous people. She also liked to listen to the “short wave.” Her father had erected a long wire antenna – perhaps 60 feet in length – across the back yard from the house to a pole near the street. Betty could routinely pick up stations all over the world.

This particular afternoon she was “cruising” across the dial in search of anything interesting when she came upon a woman’s voice, speaking in English and obviously quite upset. Betty listened for a while and was startled to hear the woman say, “This is Amelia Earhart. This is Amelia Earhart.”

Betty was always “crazy about airplanes” and was well aware of Earhart’s World Flight. Today, at 78, she can’t recall whether or not, on this particular day, she already knew that Earhart was missing but it was clear to her that Amelia was in trouble so Betty opened her notebook and started to make notes about what she was hearing. The words came too fast for her to get everything and often she would only write a word or two of what had been said. The signal faded in and out, sometimes stopped altogether for several minutes and at other times was quite distorted, but Betty tried her best to get down at least some of what was being said. If she wasn’t sure about a word she would just write down what it sounded like to her.

Betty heard not only Amelia’s calls for help but also her comments to a man who was with her. Betty had the impression that the man had sustained a head injury and was delirious. She gathered that they had crashed on land but that there was also great concern about rising water. The man would alternately struggle with Amelia and try to get the microphone away from her or panic and try to get out of the airplane.

The transmissions continued to come in, off and on, for about three hours until 6:15 p.m.

http://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Documents/Notebook/notebook.html

Yes, it would be VERY hard to doubt the marines’ story — there are several Marines in my family and they are nothing but straight shooters with very little ‘joking around.’

Hillary:

this

Now, I call my friends and asked them again about the aircraft wreckage they dived on.
They said:

Utirik Island

Chirubon Island

Now, here's the problem. Utirik Atoll (also Utrik or Utrōk) and Taka Atoll were used as nuclear test sites during WWII.
But my friends said there's enough wreckage on the tree line and on shore that they took photo's, during the mid 1980s, and sent them to the University of Michigan for identification.
The University of Michigan wrote them that it was an Electra type aircraft, but there were no serial numbers that could positively identify that wreckage as Amelia Earhart's Electra.
Even though that was over 30 years ago, I feeel sure that someone could go back to the north end of Utirik Island or Chirubon Island and find that wreckage.

Now consider A compilation of radio messages and eyewitness sightings of Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan in the Marshall Islands and on the island of Saipan using Noonan's injuries as a common thread.

“On July 3rd, 1937 at 2:20 PM EST, I picked up Amelia Earhart's distress signal by short wave. This message contained some 300 to 400 words-in which she described Mille or Mulgrave atoll, Klee Passage, Knox island and seemed to be located on a small island of 133 acres adjoining Knox, directly NE of a part of Marshall Island”. That would be Chirubon island, just to the north of Knox . On the 5th of July. Nina picked up an SOS giving 177 longitude.... and 58 minutes above the equator. The radio was fading in and out so the coordinates were partial. Just for fun, I took those numbers, bought aerial navigation charts from NOAA, and inserted all of the possible number combinations for coordinates in the Marshall Islands to make a complete set of coordinates. The only place in the Marshalls that I came close to land were the coordinates-172.07 degrees east, 5 hours and 58 minutes north of the equator, the reef plain on the western shore of Chirubon Island. That area is dry at low tide and has about 5 feet of water at high tide. Several years later I received a copy of Charles N. Hill's book “Fix on the Rising Sun” and noted that his redo of the LOP (line of position), page 140, puts the LOP a few miles east of this location."

I hope this helps someone verify the wreckage.

Adding another link. Look for gaia227 ... 06-25-2009, 04:59 PM (1/3rd of the way down from top of link).

Diary of AP reporter who followed Amelia and was there at ISTASCA was found in 2007. This article talks about the distress calls heard. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,263087,00.html Meanwhile, several shortwave radio listeners as far away as the U.S. mainland were picking up the faint voices of a woman and a man, sending apparent distress calls. And both the Itasca and a New Zealand cruiser, HMS Achilles, reported what seemed to be Morse code "dashes." Among reports of voice messages, two from teenagers using shortwave antennas rigged by their fathers were most disturbingly credible. In Rock Springs, Wyo., Dana Randolph, 16, heard a voice say,"This is Amelia Earhart. Ship is on a reef south of the equator." Radio experts, aware that "harmonic" frequencies in mid-ocean often could be heard far inland, viewed the report as genuine. Turning the shortwave dial in St. Petersburg, Fla., 15-year-old Betty Klenck was startled to hear a woman say,"This is Amelia Earhart Putnam," followed by pleas for help and agitated conversation with a man who, the girl thought, sounded irrational. Having heard Earhart's voice in movie newsreels, she had no doubt that it was her."In my mind, a picture of her and what she was saying lasted for years. I remembered it every night of my life," Betty Klenck Brown, now 84 and widowed, said in a recent telephone interview from her home in California. The man, she recalls,"seemed coherent at times, then would go out of his head. He said his head hurt ... She was trying mainly to keep him from getting out of the plane, telling him to come back to his seat, because she couldn't leave the radio. "She was trying to get somebody to hear her, and as the hours went by she became more frantic." Betty listened for nearly two hours, taking notes in a school composition notebook as the signals faded in and out. They ended when the fliers"were leaving the plane, because the water was knee-deep on her side," she said. She believes she may be the last living person to have heard Earhart's distress calls. Her father, Kenneth, who also heard the voices, contacted the Coast Guard at St. Petersburg, but was brushed off with assurances that the service was fully engaged in searching for the fliers, she said."He got mad and chucked the whole thing because of the way he was treated." Both teenagers' accounts would support TIGHAR's premisethat Earhart crash-landed on Gardner's flat reef at low tide, was able to run its right engine to power the radio, and escaped the aircraft before tides eventually carried it off the reef into deep water. On July 18, 16 days after Earhart and Noonan disappeared, the Navy and Coast Guard ended what the AP called"the greatest search ever undertaken in behalf of a lost flier." To justify the official finding that the Electra was lost at sea, the government dismissed the radio distress calls as hoaxes or misunderstandings. Betty Klenck Brown's response today:"I know I am right."

This is very interesting in the "read " document on top of the ink.
Start at page 14, and see

WHAT HAPPENED TO AMELIA EARHART?

R. C. Sherman
August, 1986

Then go to page 17 and read thru to page 21.

Amelia's sighting of the bright lights on NAU was heard by Chief of Police on his short wave radio. His request for frequencies and time had been answered by Harry at LAE. We are thus certain of the LAE -NUK -NAU route. The time was not accurately recorded by the Chief. but recalled later as between 10:30 and 11:30 Z. Of 11:00 Z is used, the G.S. would be 114K/131MPH, just a bit slower than they had planned, indicating an average headwind component of about 10-15K. Normal so far, over 1/2 way and exactly on (her revised) course, 1250 NM and 11 hours behind them, 989 NBM and 81/2 hours to go, with a new ETA for HOW of 1930 Z. She should have passed the Gilberts from about 1400 to 1430 Z, 2-2:30 a.m. local. The Itasca heard some faint signals several hours later. At 1816 Z they heard, "100 miles out", and by 1912 Z her, "…on top of you, but can't see you", was 5 x 5, as was 1915 Z, "…circling. It would appear that she was between her ETEA and ETA-15 min. 2239 NM (revised route) in 19:15 is a G.S. of 116K/134MPH. An indication that the headwind component was light but there was probably a crosswind component because they missed HOW. An observation on the Itasca at this time noted that it was clear to the South toward Baker and the Itasca had a trail of smoke that could be seen from quite a distance/ To the North, however, were fairly solid black clouds, probably rain. Amelia had reported cloudy weather and rain. At 1928 Z she said, "give signal on 7500 Kc for bearing." (There 7500 Kc is again). The Itasca responded to every call, but never got an acknowledgement. Something must have been wrong with her 3105 receiver. Most unfortunately she never tried another frequency until her 19282 request for 7500 Kc. At 1933Z the Itasca heard, "received your signal but couldn't get a minimum." So! She must have heard 7500 and may had had D. F. capability on that frequency. Meanwhile, Black and Lt. Cooper had set up their H.F. D. F. on the island. For power they had rigged up the Itasca's gun control batteries. During her calls on 3105 - a half dozen or more in the last 12 hours, none were long enough for them to get a bearing. There is a suspicion that the batteries had run down from earlier tests and the last several hours of use. Even had they obtained several bearings, how could they have advised her since she heard only one call of the hundreds made to her? At 2014 Z her signal was a bit weaker, she said, "flying North and South on sunline 157° - 337 °." It was her last message. Tarawa was 622 NM from Howland; about 41/2 hours, although other islands in the group should be seen earlier. They probably had about 5 hours of fuel, at the most left. She likely set course for TAR, using HOW as the starting point. Since she was probably 90 to 130 NM North, Northwest, of HOW, advancing the heading to that area, and applying the crosswind that got her that far North in the first place would put her within sight of Mill Atoll - about 630 NM from the position we assumed, N.N.W. of HOW, as the gas needle hit zero. 17 Several natives saw the plane belly land in shallow water above the reef just off the shore of Barre Island, on the North side of Mill Atoll. They were astounded to see a "package" change into a boat, and two "men" climb in and paddle to shore. The tallest man, Fred, was hurt and the shorter, thinner "man", Amelia, helped him. Some Japanese soldiers had also seen the plane. When it landed, they commandeered a fishing boat and paddled across the lagoon in the cal Atoll; an intermittent ring of coral based islands, with a lagoon in the middle. It is located on the Southern edge of the Marshall Island Group. The hidden natives watched the strangers and the Japanese who came from behind across the lagoon. Soon the confrontation occurred, with much arm waving and sign language. Our flyers were eventually transported to the village on Mili Island, the largest of the tiny Atoll ring. On July 9th, three of the four ships in the 12th Squadron, ostensibly searching for the downed plane, (reported to the U.S. as an all out effort) were ordered back to their home base, Ise Bay Japan. No need to really search since they had been found. The fourth ship, the 2000 ton research ship, Koshu, was ordered to Jaliut, headquarters for the Marshalls. The Koshu was the only one of the four ships with a plane hoist on the fantail. It had a canvas sling which was put under seaplanes to hoist them aboard, before hoist rings were built into the planes. Incredibly, the Japanese in 1949 during the occupation, succeeded in convincing an Army G-2 investigation into the Earhart disappearance, that rumors not withstanding, their Navy had made a sustained, heroic effort to locate the downed plane, it was never found. thus the flyers could not have been held on Saipan or anywhere else. Pacific islanders had long ago learned that it wasn't smart to talk to any outsiders, Japanese, Americans or whomever; they were mum for years. On July 17th, the Koshu took on coal in Jaluit. It then steamed to Barre Island where they winched up the damaged Electra and picked up the prisioners. The plane was seen on the fantail by a medical corpsman and his native helper when the Koshu put into Jaluit on the 19th to get help for Fred Noonan from the local medical detachment. The Koshu then steamed to Kwajalein, then on to the large naval base at Truk. Amelia and Fred were transported to a sea plane and flown to Garipan on Saipan in the Mariana's. All of the foregoing from witnesses, crew members, and the Koshu's log. Because of the Japanese paranoias about getting caught red handed with their string of island fortifications and naval bases, theymwere suspicious about Amelia's round the world trip. Fearing that her disappearance was an excuse for a massive "search" by the U.S., the Japanese High Command was literally on pins and needles. When she was found in the Marshalls, over 800 N.M. from Howland, and with a camera (albeit an ordinary 35 mm type), the questioning was exten- sive. By the time the High Command began to believe the truth, there was no way to take back their lies to the world, nor erase the incriminating sights the two had seen. They could never be released. Fred grew increasingly irritable with his captors and his meager ration of watery soup and rice. In a fit of rage, he threw a bowl of food at his jailer. He was summarily taken out and executed. Amelia languished in her cell for another year (no more exact time could be determined) finally succumbing to dysentery. 18 Goerner was convinced that Amelia and Fred had died in captivity in Garipan Prison on Saipan, because of several witnesses, including one who was in an adjacent cell. He was unable to prove how they came to be on Saipan, so he spent a good deal of time trying to find their graves to have bones iden- tified as a Caucasian male and female of Amelia's and Fred's approximate height and age. He discovered that the cometry he poked around in was not the origi= nal site, and when he thought he found the one in use in 12938 and '59, other witnesses told him that it had been disturbed many times. He put much store in the rumor of an American team, during the investigation of Saipan, going directly to the old cemetery, exhuming several graves, and taking the remains back to a warship. Klaas as convinced that Amelia was alive in the U.S., thus he discounted witnesses referred to above, andspent no time looking foe ceme- teries. Loomis, having put together a credible scenario that fit both previous facts and the missing links that he found (e.g., the Koshu's log and several of its crew members), did not believe that remainswere necessary to prove his the- sis. Despite their shortcomings, Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan had the courage and self-confidence of all pioneers. He'd they been able to get a 'celestial fix before dawn, or a radio bearing later (either with their equipment or by the Itasca) to intersect their un line, history would have been differnt> * * * * * * * * * * 19

There's a chart on page 21 that worth seeing, but I can[t reconstruct it.

Also, I found this interesting chart.

Here is a great article with graphics on the possible Ditiching event and body movements inside the cockpit of an Electra landing in the water.

Here is aircraft data onSpecifications for Earhart’s Lockheed Electra 10E.

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