This question troubled us for years until new information about exactly where the airplane was made the answer apparent. If the airplane was near the ocean side of the reef where former island resident Emily Sikuli says she saw wreckage, and where anomalous material on the reef is visible in early photos, the airplane was hidden by the crashing surf. A photograph taken during the Navy search documents that, at the time of the overflight, the tide was high and the ocean was rough enough that the seaward portion of the reef was completely obscured by surf.