TIGHAR
Amelia Earhart Search Forum => General discussion => Topic started by: Jeff Lange on January 28, 2024, 11:01:56 AM
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Saw this in my youtube feed today. Another discovery of her aircraft?
https://youtu.be/r05K6ilkNCM?si=kOeZfuKrwoPdvm6q
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Like Billy the Kid, she's everywhere! Seriously, I wish them well, but we've all seen this before.
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TIGHARNews email about this just sent out.
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They'll be awfully disappointed to find it's a '50's Navy fighter, but it would be cool to see nonetheless!
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I'm guessing it'll be an FJ-4 Fury. Any other guesses?
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What if it is her plane? 100 miles outside of Howland Island.
Could they have landed safely on the water (like guy in NY), floated around for a bit (sending messages)until plane started to fill with water and sink (one of messages said "taking on water knee deep"), and then one of them drifted or floated to Gardner island (300 miles away) and been cast away still? Sounds far fetched I know.
Or they both sank with plane and debris floated to Gardner island causing the items to be found there?
Shoes, glass, zipper piece, possibly floating in a bag?
Although I know messages were heard by people days after plane disappeared..... just a theory no real basis, asking questions still though almost 90 years later.
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I'm guessing it'll be an FJ-4 Fury. Any other guesses?
C-47
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If the plane went down west of Howland, the prevailing currents and wind would have the plane drift west, not east. The post-loss aerial search by the Navy correctly assumed this. Based upon the ship logs' re-navigation, I was able to determine that the narrow Equatorial CounterCurrent, which runs west to east, was narrow and above 2* N. This current would be in opposition to the winds, largely putting her plane in somewhat of a static east-west position.
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According to the interviewer at the 6:45 point in the linked Youtube video below, Bob Ballard believed the plane to be "in the sea off Howland" as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyfTi2-VQDY
I wonder if after his previous searches and expeditions in that area he picked up the same thing, or something similar they want to revisit. The way he says "stay tuned" seems like he has some information he is not willing to share.
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Even if it looks like swept wings, the image is basically like a shadow. You don't know how the object is oriented. Yes, it looks like an FJ-4, but it could also be a WWII era carrier aircraft with wings partially folded. Some of them stowed in a "swept" configuration.
The ferry route to Australia took aircraft to Christmas Island, then Canton, etc. It could easily be a C-47. When you have a blurry mish-mash of an image, the nose section, engines and slightly swept wings of the C-47 might look even more swept.
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We've been sending out news bulletin emails about this. Click HERE (https://conta.cc/3SjDhzi) for the most recent one. It's shareable on social media.
You can sign up to receive the news bulletin emails at https://visitor.r20.constantcontact.com/manage/optin?v=001vRta0njc69PE4KR_0trczjmW3Zr8vlaX3D_FmQYpdnngc8VkfAfLBxUjnrLR8ZN0kpVZzBNuOTHSeq9nIYOqKNMv6q42K9ko0H0rd_5Q8ik%3D
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I keep seeing references to the "double tail" on this image. Am I missing something? I don't see it.
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Romeo dismisses this criticism. Both the wings and the tail look swept back due to distortion caused by the AUV moving through the water
I'd be interested to see other examples of this phenomenon.
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I got to tell our side of the story in a 36 minute interview that aired yesterday (2/3) on FOX NEWS LIVE. You can see it at https://youtu.be/4g6jch-48HU
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To me it sort of looks like a floatplane. Inverted with twin floats. The blob running parallel to the the fuselage a the top of the image would be one of the floats and the other float hiding or blending in with the fuselage.
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Most people (and media) are not accustomed to what sonar images look like. The whole point of sonar is that you can tell what you're looking at.
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What do we know of any aircraft lost in that area? I agree it doesn't look like AE's plane, but are there any other possibilities? I suspect not, so people less knowledgeable may conclude that if it looks like an airplane, then it must be AE's.
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No aircraft ever landed on Howland Island, but during WWII there was plenty of aerial activity in the area. A PBM Mariner flying boat was damaged upon landing on the ocean near Howland and was beached there to avoid sinking.
The airstrip on Baker Island, 40 miles south of Howland, built in September 1943, played a key role in Operation Galvanic, the invasion of Tarawa in November 1943. P-40 Warhawks were based on Baker. During November 13-19, 1943 U.S. Army and U.S. Navy aircraft from Task Force 57 (TF-57) commanded by Rear Admiral J. H. Hoover attacked Japanese bases in the Gilbert and Marshalls. During December 1943 until January 1944, B-24s staged through Baker for combat missions against Japanese targets including Maloelap and Majuro and Mili, Wotje and Maloelap. (https://pacificwrecks.com/airfields/usa/baker/index.html)
On October 23, 1943 P-40s from Baker claimed a Japanese flying boat shot down 70 miles south of Baker.
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Hi
What is the 'Dateline Theory' which was mentioned in the latest TIGHAR news release? I clicked on the link but my browser said DANGER dont go there!
Colin
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What is the 'Dateline Theory' which was mentioned in the latest TIGHAR news release? I clicked on the link but my browser said DANGER dont go there!
The link goes to a website put up by Liz Smith, a self-described "science communicator," who proposed The Date Line Theory in 2010. The website is not "dangerous" as far as I know, but it's a good idea to listen to your browser.
As I explained in the news release, The Date Line Theory suggests (without evidence) that Noonan failed to allow for crossing the International Dateline on the way to Howland, resulting in him think the island was 60 miles west of where it really is. When you cross the 180° meridian traveling east, the day suddenly becomes yesterday — very confusing if you're not used to it — but Noonan routinely dealt with crossing the date line when navigating Pan Am Clippers on trans-Pacific flights.
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I was Googling for something else, and ran across this article, from about three weeks ago, on the topic of Tony Romeo and the sonar image:
Thomas Curwen. "How Explorers Found Amelia Earhart's Watery Grave: Or Did They?" Los Angeles Times, March 26, 2024, republished online at the Arizona Daily Sun (Flagstaff) website.
https://azdailysun.com/news/nation-world/how-explorers-found-amelia-earharts-watery-grave-or-did-
they/article_be25a8c8-ebbf-11ee-b098-43524eefd573.html (https://azdailysun.com/news/nation-world/how-explorers-found-amelia-earharts-watery-grave-or-did-
they/article_be25a8c8-ebbf-11ee-b098-43524eefd573.html)
I added it to my Earhart bookmarks and will read it sometime eventually later but not now. "Crashed and sank" not my theory.
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MY two cents.
I showed the sonar picture to my father, an old aviator and sailor. After thirty seconds, he handed it back to me and said, “It's just an anchor with the anchor chain, or even part of the davit with it.” It's true that even iron steamers/liners from the 1870s and 1880s were still equipped with huge conventional anchors carried/secured on the outside of the hull... One should have lost his apparatus during a strong gale.
We don't really know the scale of measurement of this sonar image.
Leaving aside Ric's comment on the strength of the central wings section, I'm having trouble recognizing the aft fuselage and the two vertical fins. And where are the engine fairings/mounts?
As far as I'm concerned, you can say anything and everything about this image, it's like seeing a face in a cloud...