Bob Ballard to search for Earhart plane

[John Balderston]

14 August - Cruise the north side of the island, return to search west of the Bevington Object at approximately 2000.  The grey track segment west of Bevington Object indicates that there was no geo position reporting on the track from 2019Z - 2142Z (1 hour 23 minutes).

[John Balderston]

15 August - continue east-to-west search west of the Bevington Object location until 0200Z (this short west northwest search track occupied two hours), then transit south into what appears to be a "pork chop"-shaped holding pattern (the four hour track, generally north to south, at the eastern end of the "pork chop" appears to be a drift, and not a search).  Around 2200Z, at the top of the "pork chop", begin a transit to the north side of the island.

[John Balderston]

16 August - Continue slow clockwise transit around the island, arriving on station in deep water west of the Bevington Object location at approximately 1000Z.  Conducted search west of Bevington Object location through the remainder of 16 August.  Note - the short west-east track segment indicated in grey (due to no geo position reporting for over an hour) occupied an hour and twenty minutes, 13:49Z - 15:10Z

[John Balderston]

And finally, 17 August.  Finish search west of Bevington Object location sometime between 0000Z and 0200Z (missing geo location reporting data).  Transition to "mow the lawn" deep water search west of Norwich City, beginning the track at 0525Z; apparently completing at 1730Z.   Nautilus transited to the southeastern end of the island, and as of 0000Z 18 Aug was headed northwest, perhaps to deeper water west of the Bevington Object location, TBD.

Sorry about so many posts in a row - hoping this is as interesting to you as it is to me. . .  :-[

[Greg Daspit]

John, Thanks for posting the plots!
All interesting. In the last one they seem to take path on a straight line from the SE corner to a point miles out and stopped there. Maybe investigating a sonar suspect?

[John Gubata]

Great job John Balderston. I was about to sign up for the Marine Traffic free trial. No need now.

Also there is some great monitoring going on at  https://twitter.com/LabratSR.
Including this last screen shot showing the Nautilus reducing it's search ladder.


During the earlier closer search, I believe they have covered the area southwest of the Norwich City that Ric mentioned (postulating the a/c may have floated for about 18 minutes before submerging). The ship is currently working it's way back towards the island from much further out.  However, they are reducing the southern extent of their search. Maybe due to the landslides seen by TIGHAR on the previous expeditions. I hope they are not bypassing an important area.

[Greg Daspit]

I'm not sure but they appear to be back at Friday's point of interest .6 NM roughly West of BO. Twice today.
Once there briefly after coming directly from SE Corner of the big grid search, and now back again.
Any chance to get a new plot?

[John Balderston]

Here is a plot of the past six days (plus 33 minutes into today GMT).  To Greg's point, the Nautilus has revisited a location west of the Bevington Object location three times in the past three days, and spent considerable time there.  Each time the speed was indicating less than 1/2 knot, which I'm supposing means they had ROVs in the water.  About an hour and a half ago they departed on a north northeast heading, still making headway at less than 1/2 kt.  For about the past 30 minutes they have been at the position indicated.

It's really interesting to watch this team of professionals at work with their serious equipment, and try to imagine what is going on. . .

[Bill Mangus]

New post on Nat'l Geo site:

     https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/2019/08/colossal-crabs-hold-clue-amelia-earhart-fate/

Probably more than you want to know about coconut crabs ;D  One picture from the 7 site.

[Ric Gillespie]

New post on Nat'l Geo site:

They should have let me proof read it. 

[John Balderston]

Couldn't wait to get home and have a look at what the expedition did today.  For the past 24 hours appears they conducted a fresh search to the west northwest of the island, north of the area already searched.  At the end of the 24-hour period, transited on a southerly heading past BO location and Norwich City (if ~ 1 knot is a transit; might be with ROVs deployed???).  No geo position update; biting nails a bit to see if they turn north.  Sure would like this team to positively identify AIRPLANE bits on the reef . . .

[Randy Conrad]

Hey John...think this vessel software is really neat. Have a question though with the latest map photo. With the trail route back and forth as shown. Is that Nautilus doing that or Ben? Let me know? Plus how far from the island would this routing be?

[John Balderston]

Hi Randy, the Nautilus ran that N-S "mow the lawn" pattern on 18-19 Aug (GMT).  ASV "Ben" has been used close to shore; however hasn't shown a track since early on the 18th. 

I haven't found a software function for measuring distance.  However, eyeballing on my plot with lat/long displayed, the easternmost edge of the pattern is at 174 deg 34 minutes.  The west coast of the island is at about 174 deg 32 minutes, 45 seconds (about 1 1/4 minutes of longitude apart.)  Not going nuts with the trig, that close to the equator a minute of longitude is a bit less than a mile.  So I'd WAG that the eastern edge of the pattern is about a mile west of Niku.

[Joy Diane Forster]

John and others, I appreciate that you are posting the tracks and also links to news and updates. 

My computer didn't like the tracking software, and I haven't had much time to search for articles, so thank you.

The tracks do certainly lead to some interesting speculation as to what the researchers are seeing...........

[Ric Gillespie]

Did anyone ever identify where the foliage in the cook photo was located underwater?

No, not with any precision.  The general consensus was that it was north of the Bevington Object location but not around the NW tip.