My name is Bryan, I'm 44, and never gave Amelia Earhart a second thought. I saw the show on her last night on The Discovery Channel and was completely amazed. I was so amazed that one of the first things I did when I woke up this morning (after my coffee) was locate the tighar website, poke around there for a while, find the forum section, register, wait for the confirmation email, and login just to share how good that show was.
One thing about the show that got to me was the fact that Amelia probably did not die in a split second from a crash like I would have believed. It looks like she landed, Fred Noonan was badly injured, probably from when the tire hit the hole in the reef (nessi). So she probably out lived Fred and she probably saw the Navy search planes. She had to deal with thousands of large land crabs constantly. Especially after seeing what they did to the pig on last nights show.
After absorbing last night's show and sleeping on it, I came up with a question for Ric:
What if the plane is not in the water? What if the plane's wheel was ripped of during the landing and then slid onto the beach?
I don't know how fast a plane is going when it lands, but it seems to me that it could have landed, hit the hole, lost the wheel, and kept on sliding forward. That could also explain Noonan's injuries and the fact that you found airplane parts on land.
On the show it was said that crashing waves could have ripped the plane from it's wheel.
I think the plane could have come in for a landing, hit the hole, lost the wheel, and slid up on the beach, where it was picked apart.
On the show the "jungle" looked VERY thick and this crash happened over 70 years ago. Imagine how much growth must have taken place in 70 years. You could be standing 20 feet from the plane and not even know it.
Anyway I guess I've gone on enough.
I would like for Ric to know that the show was really something else. I'm a 44 year old former construction worker with a tenth grade education. I never could have cared less About Amelia before watching the show, now I just want to watch it again.
Good luck in 2012, and good luck in bringing closure to this case.