This is sort of a follow up post to my first—it sort of explains my uneasiness with the Gardner Island theory.
I find the TIGHAR explanation for AE/FN’s landing at Gardner Island both interesting and plausible, but I can’t shake some nagging doubts, oddly enough caused by the credible post loss radio messages. The basic theory is that AE/FN landed the plane on the reef at Gardner Island, and stayed with the plane for several days, transmitting messages at low tide when they could run an engine to keep the planes batteries charged. Plausible enough, but here are my problems with the theory:
1) How likely is it that you could land a plane of a reef, injure both occupants of the plane, one of them seriously, yet have the plane sound enough to run one of the engines (i.e. the plane sitting properly on its landing gear, the engine mounts undamaged, the controls to it sound)? It’s possible, but is it likely.
2) The plane is a “tail dragger,” and from looking at the pictures, the cockpit is rather far off the ground when properly set on its landing gear. Yet one of the post loss messages states that they were in water up to their knees, and the water was rising. If they were in the cockpit of the plane, that would be pretty high water, and given the slant of the plane on its landing gear, much of the tail of the plane was either submerged, or floating, buoyed up by the empty gas tanks. My understanding was that the radio was in the rear of the plane, under the navigator’s desk. If the plane was on its landing gear, and the AE/FN in the cockpit with water up to their knees, then surely the radio, and possibly the batteries and engine carburetors were under salt water. It’s hard to imagine that the radio would function in these conditions.
3) But suppose that the rear of the plane is buoyed up by the empty gas tanks, and is sitting relatively horizontally, anchored by its main gear. The water is still up to their knees, maybe 18 inches, and presumably the rest of the airplane is flooded to a similar depth. If the radio is under the navigator’s desk, isn’t it still under water?
4) But let’s assume that AE/FN are at the navigators station instead of the cockpit, then regardless of whether the tail wheel is on the ground or floating, they are still in water up to their knees, and the radio is still under the navigator’s desk.
So what does it mean? I don’t know, it’s just problems that I have with the Gardner Island landing theory.