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[Andreas Badertscher]

I've just read the "Bettys sketch book" page and it's comments.
Appearantly AE talks about rising water etc. Maybe I'm confused. Does it not sound that they crash landed on the ocean and the plane slowly started to sink? Or was it the incoming tide?

[Ric Gillespie]

The plane's radio could not transmit if the plane was floating in the ocean, so if the radio calls were made at all the plane had to be on land but threatened by rising water. That describes perfectly the situation other evidence suggests - that the plane was landed on the dry reef at Gardner Island (now Nikumaroro). The rising water mentioned in Betty's Notebook probably refers to a rising tide.

[Andreas Badertscher]

Thanks Ric
That's what I thought but it's clear now.
I wish you and your team succes with the upcoming trip to Niki!
andy

[Tim Collins]

Have you been able to match the timing of Betty's transcript telling of rising water with your recreated tide tables?

T

[Ric Gillespie]

Of course, we don't know for sure which day Betty heard AE but everything seems to fit best on Monday, July 5th  - and yes, the tide was coming in during the broadcast on that day.