Ok, this is obviously not a real military operation but just a theory to float out there.
I am not sure if this conspiracy theory has been discussed previously but has anyone put forward the idea that the U.S. government was running an aerial photography spy mission where there were Electras sent out in the Pacific at the time when AE and FN went missing? Perhaps there were even more than one set of planes sent out to perform reconnaissance as some of the other theories suggest however it was not AE and FN, it was their look-a-likes. If the spies were somehow captured, perhaps the idea was that the world attention of the event would prevent any harm coming to them and they would be recovered.
I am sucker for eye witness testimony, especially of former U.S. military that claimed to have seen something unusual and after all these years stick to those claims. I am of course talking about the
witnesses in Saipan that claimed to have seen a flying Electra with a matching registration number. For whatever reason, I find the entire notion that these guys fabricated such a story to be incredulous. There was no financial gain to be had and no motivation for putting forth such a story that I can see. At least a couple of these guys held paperwork in their hands. Even if you discount the eye witnesses native to Saipan that claimed to have seen a captured pair of aviators, a man and a woman, how can you discount what these veterans claim?
I believe they saw something. Surely the briefcase described must have existed. For myself, I also believe that a plane, was torched on the airfield as they described. Why would the military do something like this assuming that it was the actual AE Electra? They would not in my mind but they might destroy an aircraft that was never meant to be seen. Perhaps in hindsight they came to the conclusion that imitating the pair was not such a good idea after all and might be perceived in a negative light by the rest of the world.
If there was such a spy program, isn't there a 75 year limitation on how long that information can be classified? Could a simple FOIA request find the missing briefcase that was handed off to a higher ranking officer?
If you were to file a FOIA in search of the briefcase would this be directed at the DoD?
For entertainment here are a couple of links to a 2 part Unsolved Mysteries video on Youtube giving the background information on the story told by the veterans.
Part1,
Part2.
Thanks.