What if the Taraia object is exactly where it crashed and not brought in by tidal movement over any period of time.
Any hypothesis that has the Electra landing in the lagoon has to dismiss all of the post-loss radio signals and the Bevington Object plus assume the Navy fliers missed an airplane wreck sitting right there in plane sight.
The hypothesis that the Electra landed on the reef is the only thing that has stopped me asking (in the last 20 or so years) why on earth Amelia would have landed out on the reef flat.
As an relatively inexperienced, but adequate, pilot, if I was approaching an island with wide sandy beaches, ore coral rubble beaches, I would have tried lining up on the coral. I'm pretty sure Amelia and Fred were low enough on fuel to know they would be relying on the Electra for accommodation and supplies of whatever they had, like tools etc.
I'm also fairly sure they would realise that the Electra would never be flown off again if they landed on the reef, even if the crevasses in the coral didn;t tear the gear off.
Better to risk landing those lovely big balloon tyres that were more or less made for landing on sand, on loose coral rubble or soft sand, and coming to a sudden halt, even if they hit a small boulder or two or tore off a wing tip, or even a whole wing.
There appear to be lots of, admittedly sloping, coral ruble or sand beaches around most of Niku.
Had they done that, and had they avoided a fire on landing, they would have had shelter, food, water and survival stores. They would have had no chance to fly off, but they would have been visible to a search and perhaps alive.
Assuming they chose to land on the reef, they still immediately gave up any chance of flying off, but added the complication of their shelter being subject to destruction on the first high tide.
I know a pilot's first though is to save the plane, which is the cause of so many crashes when someone tries to turn back when an engine fails. But logically, you put the thing down somewhere survivable. Stuff the plane - save the people.
Th' Wombat