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Amelia Earhart Search Forum => Join the search => Topic started by: jack dunn on April 20, 2011, 12:19:01 PM

Title: Items not found
Post by: jack dunn on April 20, 2011, 12:19:01 PM
On the first World Flight the plane crash landed, an inventory was carried out,

http://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Documents/Luke_Field.html

For the second World Flight, they left some items behind to lighten the planes load so they could take extra fuel on board.

It seems that they never thought of removing these items from the plane, even if they had 25% on board, some of the items would have turned up by now. There must of been some certainty in their minds that they would shortly be rescued.

Some of these items might of helped their cause.

I wonder if there is a time capsule yet to be found.
Title: Re: Items not found
Post by: Irvine John Donald on April 20, 2011, 12:51:28 PM
I have often thought a castaway would try to leave some form of "diary" of what happened to them. They had charts, pencils and probably other papers.  But who knows how much time they had to unload the Electra of everything that could be useful? Would paper even survive long if not sealed into something waterproof?  It appears they got the jackknife onto the island and I would bet the axe made it too but that's a handy tool for any islander to pass up. Like anything else they saved, the islanders could have used it and likely did as evidenced already in so many TIGHAR investigations.
Title: Re: Items not found
Post by: jack dunn on April 20, 2011, 01:25:15 PM
Theres some evidence that one of the fuel tanks was used to rig a water collecting structure as stated by one of the Loran crew.
Title: Re: Items not found
Post by: Chris Johnson on April 20, 2011, 01:33:10 PM
Theres some evidence that one of the fuel tanks was used to rig a water collecting structure as stated by one of the Loran crew.

If you check AmeliaPedia you will find that the water catching device was found to be a Water Tank with Tarawa (sp) police written on the side.

Niku IIIP (http://tighar.org/wiki/Niku_IIIP_(1996))

See nelow below for a more informed response  :)
Title: Re: Items not found
Post by: Martin X. Moleski, SJ on April 20, 2011, 03:18:52 PM
There's some evidence that one of the fuel tanks was used to rig a water collecting structure as stated by one of the Loran crew.

There is no evidence to that effect.

That was an early guess about what might have happened.

The structure turned out to be a water tank. (http://tighar.org/wiki/Water_tank)

Finding that tank is what led to the discovery of the Seven Site. (http://tighar.org/wiki/Seven_Site)
Title: Re: Items not found
Post by: Ted G Campbell on April 20, 2011, 08:10:28 PM
We all talk about what AE must have left behind so she could max out her fuel load.  Do we have any evidence from the airport authorities that AE did in fact leave somthing behind?
Ted Campbell
Title: Re: Items not found
Post by: david alan atchason on April 20, 2011, 08:52:35 PM
I didn't notice anything in the list about a sextant or sextant box. Maybe I was just careless reading it. Or did Fred carry it with him? He must have had some such instrument.
Title: Re: Items not found
Post by: Walter Runck on April 20, 2011, 09:17:37 PM
I didn't notice anything in the list about a sextant or sextant box. Maybe I was just careless reading it. Or did Fred carry it with him? He must have had some such instrument.

I think FN and the other navigators of his day tended to buy (and care for) their own equipment rather than depend on the employer of the moment to provide something they could bet their life on.  I think he carried the octant, his "preventer" and the rest of the nav gear off the flight with him rather than have the Army take custody.  This theory may be hard to prove in civilian life, but one thread I'd like to pursue on the Navy side is the thought that officers were expected to own and maintain their own sextants until the USNO got into the business.  Should be well documented in Annapolis or other archives.
Title: Re: Items not found
Post by: jack dunn on April 21, 2011, 12:17:51 AM
I stand corrected, theres a lot of info to digest, so thats what the Loran crew came across. I should have used the word 'suggestion' instead of 'evidence.'



There's some evidence that one of the fuel tanks was used to rig a water collecting structure as stated by one of the Loran crew.

There is no evidence to that effect.

That was an early guess about what might have happened.

The structure turned out to be a water tank. (http://tighar.org/wiki/Water_tank)

Finding that tank is what led to the discovery of the Seven Site. (http://tighar.org/wiki/Seven_Site)
Title: Re: Items not found
Post by: Dan Swift on April 24, 2011, 08:27:25 PM
Two less people on 2nd flight...that's 350 lbs. or so.  According to my understanding, load was lightened prior to Lae takeoff.  Last couple of legs...who needs it....right.  But my understanding is the Elecra was loaded as normal prior to Lae.  Someone correct me if I am wrong on this.....please.  I am learning too. 
Title: Re: Items not found
Post by: Martin X. Moleski, SJ on April 24, 2011, 10:20:34 PM
Two less people on 2nd flight...that's 350 lbs. or so.  According to my understanding, load was lightened prior to Lae takeoff.  Last couple of legs...who needs it....right.  But my understanding is the Elecra was loaded as normal prior to Lae.  Someone correct me if I am wrong on this.....please.  I am learning too. 

Here is the Timeline of the second round-the-world attempt. (http://tighar.org/wiki/Timeline)

Most of the legs flown were relatively short compared to the Electra's range.

I've made the table sortable.  Click on the funny little (http://tighar.org/aw/mediawiki/skins/common/images/sort_none.gif) symbol in the "Statue miles" column to examine the flights from shortest to longest.  You can then see why weight wasn't much of an issue early on but was critical for the longest leg, Lae to Howland.
Title: Re: Items not found
Post by: Walter Runck on April 25, 2011, 07:40:58 AM
According to the Longs' book, they were periodically sending stuff back the the States from stops along the way.  Isn't that how some of the artifacts survived to end up in the Purdue and other collections? 
Title: Re: Items not found
Post by: Martin X. Moleski, SJ on April 25, 2011, 05:44:03 PM
According to the Longs' book, they were periodically sending stuff back the the States from stops along the way.  Isn't that how some of the artifacts survived to end up in the Purdue and other collections? 

Yes.  I think Fred sent back maps that he no longer needed.  That's how the navigators can reconstruct the real sequence of events when the flight approached Dakar. (http://tighar.org/wiki/Dakar)