Could the Electra have taken off from Gardner?

[Irvine John Donald]

Good points Chris.  You're making me think harder.

[Erik]

Perhaps the location of "nessie" is actually the 2nd landing attempt that was made by the Electra!  Everyone assumes just one landing was made.  But, perhaps an original landing was made on a reef location that was more hospitable to takeoffs.  Even near the seven site for wishful thinkers. Then, like was suggested (for whatever reason) they tookoff again, landing again where we now know as "nessie".  Like the saying goes, stranger things have happened.

Perhaps after making radio calls, they decided a hail-mary attempt at gaining altitude to get a better view, additional celestial observations, gain better radio transmission, or whatever, purposefully circling overhead, then landing safe again when fuel ran out?  We've all done that trick (except the fuel exhaustion part) during our flight training - correct  ;).  At that point anything was worth a try.

The other thought I had was maybe they did try to reposition the airplane closer to the beach and that's when they got stuck in the crevice and ripped the landing gear - as opposed to getting stuck during the initial landing, never able to take off again.

I know... I know...  you're gonna tell me..... "we'll never know", but this is all just an exercise in thinking outside the box and stimulating creative thinking - right?

[Irvine John Donald]

Perhaps the location of "nessie" is actually the 2nd landing attempt that was made by the Electra!  Everyone assumes just one landing was made.  But, perhaps an original landing was made on a reef location that was more hospitable to takeoffs.  Even near the seven site for wishful thinkers. Then, like was suggested (for whatever reason) they tookoff again, landing again where we now know as "nessie".  Like the saying goes, stranger things have happened.

Perhaps after making radio calls, they decided a hail-mary attempt at gaining altitude to get a better view, additional celestial observations, gain better radio transmission, or whatever, purposefully circling overhead, then landing safe again when fuel ran out?  We've all done that trick (except the fuel exhaustion part) during our flight training - correct  ;).  At that point anything was worth a try.

The other thought I had was maybe they did try to reposition the airplane closer to the beach and that's when they got stuck in the crevice and rippedN the landing gear - as opposed to getting stuck during the initial landing, never able to take off again.

I know... I know...  you're gonna tell me..... "we'll never know", but this is all just an exercise in thinking outside the box and stimulating creative thinking - right?

If any record of the castaways was maintained as in a diary, castaways log or even a message in a bottle, is ever found then we may know something more factual. Time for a new thread. Good thinking guys. Keep the creative juices flowing.