How did the patch come off at Niku? I think this question grows more and more important every day. Would it be easy for A.E. to "kick it off" from the inside of the plane? Would a woman be able to do so? Is there a way to find it out?
Oskar 4421A
Oskar, my answers, and my opinions, in order:
1) TIGHAR is trying to find the correct, qualified experts to answer that. The failures along the edges show definite patterns and have left definite traces. We just have to ask the right questions to the right people.
2) In my opinion, yes. Desperate people do amazing things during desperate time. If The Patch was kicked out from the inside, that, to me, indicates a level of desperation. Your mileage may vary.
3) In my opinion, yes. Amelia may have been a female but I hesitate to call her a lightweight, because she could probably kick my butt in a fair fight.
4) In my opinion, yes. Someone could build a mockup of the 10-E's restroom area, using the same materials and construction materials. Someone approximating Eahart's age, size and weight could be told to get in there and kick The Patch out any way she could. But at the end of the day, it would be a very, very expensive way to prove nothing. We weren't there. The only two people who were there are dead. Anything TIGHAR could attempt to replicate would have to consider so many different variables that the end result would be meaningless. Besides, it could have been Fred that kicked The Patch out. If it was kicked out at all. Or so it seems to me.
LTM, who will go back to Pondering The Patch now,
Monty Fowler, TIGHAR No. 2189 ECSP