6 ms·

Amelia Earhart May Have Survived Crash-Landing, Newly Discovered Photo Suggests

142 points by msrpotus 9y ago

clort 9y ago
Since the Japanese authorities say that they have no records of her being in custody and she presumably knowing that she would be a person of interest, might she have been inclined to give a false name?
- woliveirajr 9y ago
  But an airplane crashing in some island with a woman flying it would attract attention, specially back those days.
  - clort 9y ago
    the locals say they met her.. and they even commemorated her local appearance with stamps
  - teniutza 9y ago
    How was the "press" back then? Even if she hadn't given her real name, if the case was advertised, the capturers would have connected the dots.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- nervousvarun 9y ago
  Definitely a possibility. Or the Japanese authorities aren't being forthright about their records, just as apparently the U.S. isn't being completely forthright about the source of the photo. It's all apparently muddled up in confidentiality which is frustrating as the events were 80+ years ago.
  - coredog64 9y ago
    An alternative explanation would be that those records weren't kept with any kind of care and the current authorities can't say either way. The Marshalls are pretty far away from Japan, and so were cut off pretty early. They were also the site of heavy fighting (unlike, say, most of what is now FSM) so it's easy to imagine paperwork preservation wasn't a high priority.
    - knz 9y ago
      The Japanese also treated prisoners quite horribly during WW2. I doubt records were even kept of every civilian that was killed, especially if that person gave no indication of being significant.
    - sadfjhsdf66 9y ago
      US serviceman have claimed finding Earhart's attaché and paperwork at the end of the war, on Saipan. They claim to have been told to keep it quiet by the US Government A government with a track record of not caring to care for citizens that get in trouble over seas. Especially back then They could have wanted it "covered up" just to avoid dealing with it or concerns over international incident.
      - snowwrestler 9y ago
        I'd be interested in learning more about the serviceman claims you mention.
        sadfjhsdf66 9y ago
        I discovered the story originally while absentmindedly Googling about Earhart a few months ago (when I can't sleep I read about curious historical mysteries; Black Dahlia, DB Cooper, etc. Then I have a harder time sleeping!). It could be hogwash, all built around rumors: https://pacificwrecks.com/aircraft/electra/earhart/ https://pacificwrecks.com/aircraft/electra/earhart/ http://www.ameliaearhartmovie.com/briefcasefoundinsaipan.html http://www.ameliaearhartmovie.com/briefcasefoundinsaipan.htm...
hentrep 9y ago
A grainy 80-year old photograph of a woman's back seems hardly compelling. The other pieces of evidence they cite seem equally unconvincing. Maybe I've turned cynical given the current mainstream media circus, but this appears to be more of an advertising piece for the mentioned History channel special. It is glossed over in the article, but I'd be more interested in learning about who took the picture, and why he/she did not report seeing Earhart.
- SpikeDad 9y ago
  Seems like every 5 or 10 years we have a big burst of Amelia Earhart interest and nostalgia. Guess I don't understand - there's pretty conclusive evidence of her crashing and the circumstances of that. Just grist for someone's mills I guess.
  - kafkaesq 9y ago
    there's pretty conclusive evidence of her crashing and the circumstances of that. "Conclusive evidence" would be plane wreckage, fragments of her personal belongings (or those of other occupants) and the like. Or even statements from witnesses about a plane going down that matched the Electra's description. But we have none of that. The only thing we have "conclusive" evidence for is that at some point she dropped out of radio contact, and was probably low on fuel.
    - abritinthebay 9y ago
      I agree this photo is silly but that’s not quite true - we have partial plane wreckage, of either the same or similar model of plane, and a woman’s bones (now lost). It’s likely she crashed, and likely died on an island. The evidence is extremely suggestive. Not conclusive by any means but more than simply conjecture.
      - kafkaesq 9y ago
        a woman’s bones (now lost). I thought the consensus was that they turned out to be a man's bones (and not even matching Earhart's proportions). Which may explain why they ended up getting "lost". That leaves us with just that patch of aluminum, of unconfirmed origin. I would call that kind of an indication "mildly" rather than "extremely" suggestive.
woliveirajr 9y ago
Shouldn't information from the US government be available now? Not only the picture, bur more information regarding date/time/place/who took it. Her disappearing was a great happening, and it'll be interesting if this photo/hypothesis is correct.
valuearb 9y ago
it seems crazy and impossible. But it reminds me that the Japanese built the two largest battleships ever created, by far, and sailed them for years until sunk at the end of the war, and for decades there were no known pictures of them except those taken during their sinkings by US aitmen. They were pretty good at keeping secrets under wraps.
perseusprime11 9y ago
I am hoping AI can answer these questions more definitely than people second guessing. In general, legends tend to live longer than they may have made out to look.
086421357909764 9y ago
Wasn't Shawn Henry the "Cyber guy"?
- adam_seeliger 9y ago
  As far as the cyber I agree. We came in with the Internet. We came up with the Internet.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
sideshowb 9y ago
https://xkcd.com/950/ https://xkcd.com/950/
crispytx 9y ago
I'm pretty sure researchers have already found the little island next to which she landed. It appears that she and Fred Noonan died as castaways on the island of Nikumaroro. Bones were found on the island several years later, but have since been lost to history. One researcher even found a piece of aluminum on the island that they believe was used to patch a broken window on her plane.
- larryfreeman 9y ago
  According to Wikipedia, in the 2007 expedition that found the bones, tests were done to check but the tests were inconclusive: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amelia_Earhart#Speculation_on_disappearance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amelia_Earhart#Speculation_on_...
  - crispytx 9y ago
    I was actually referring to bones that were found in the early 1940's and lost around the same time. I think we might be talking about a different set of bones.
- jbeales 9y ago
  That's the competing theory. Apparently there are two camps of Earhart searchers: Those who believe she crashed in the Marshal Islands and died as a POW, and those who believe she crashed on Nikumaroro and died as a castaway. The Nikumaroro folks[1] mount an expedition & issue press releases every year or so, now it seems like it's time for the team Solomon Islands to take the spotlight for a moment. [1]http://tighar.org/ http://tighar.org/
adam_seeliger 9y ago
Everyone knows she never crashed. She went into the adult movie business under the screen name of: Susan Tickleberry.
doctorRetro 9y ago
"I think it leaves no doubt to the viewers that that's Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan,' Henry told NBC News." Really? Because the only thing I see no doubt of is someone who has reached a conclusion based upon scant evidence, attempting to prime an audience to accept that same conclusion as fact without independent thought or verification.

142 points by msrpotus 9y ago

Since the Japanese authorities say that they have no records of her being in custody and she presumably knowing that she would be a person of interest, might she have been inclined to give a false name?

woliveirajr 9y ago
But an airplane crashing in some island with a woman flying it would attract attention, specially back those days.
- clort 9y ago
  the locals say they met her.. and they even commemorated her local appearance with stamps
- teniutza 9y ago
  How was the "press" back then? Even if she hadn't given her real name, if the case was advertised, the capturers would have connected the dots.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
nervousvarun 9y ago
Definitely a possibility. Or the Japanese authorities aren't being forthright about their records, just as apparently the U.S. isn't being completely forthright about the source of the photo. It's all apparently muddled up in confidentiality which is frustrating as the events were 80+ years ago.
- coredog64 9y ago
  An alternative explanation would be that those records weren't kept with any kind of care and the current authorities can't say either way. The Marshalls are pretty far away from Japan, and so were cut off pretty early. They were also the site of heavy fighting (unlike, say, most of what is now FSM) so it's easy to imagine paperwork preservation wasn't a high priority.
  - knz 9y ago
    The Japanese also treated prisoners quite horribly during WW2. I doubt records were even kept of every civilian that was killed, especially if that person gave no indication of being significant.
  - sadfjhsdf66 9y ago
    US serviceman have claimed finding Earhart's attaché and paperwork at the end of the war, on Saipan. They claim to have been told to keep it quiet by the US Government A government with a track record of not caring to care for citizens that get in trouble over seas. Especially back then They could have wanted it "covered up" just to avoid dealing with it or concerns over international incident.
    - snowwrestler 9y ago
      I'd be interested in learning more about the serviceman claims you mention.
      - sadfjhsdf66 9y ago
        I discovered the story originally while absentmindedly Googling about Earhart a few months ago (when I can't sleep I read about curious historical mysteries; Black Dahlia, DB Cooper, etc. Then I have a harder time sleeping!). It could be hogwash, all built around rumors: https://pacificwrecks.com/aircraft/electra/earhart/ https://pacificwrecks.com/aircraft/electra/earhart/ http://www.ameliaearhartmovie.com/briefcasefoundinsaipan.html http://www.ameliaearhartmovie.com/briefcasefoundinsaipan.htm...

hentrep 9y ago

A grainy 80-year old photograph of a woman's back seems hardly compelling. The other pieces of evidence they cite seem equally unconvincing. Maybe I've turned cynical given the current mainstream media circus, but this appears to be more of an advertising piece for the mentioned History channel special. It is glossed over in the article, but I'd be more interested in learning about who took the picture, and why he/she did not report seeing Earhart.

SpikeDad 9y ago
Seems like every 5 or 10 years we have a big burst of Amelia Earhart interest and nostalgia. Guess I don't understand - there's pretty conclusive evidence of her crashing and the circumstances of that. Just grist for someone's mills I guess.
- kafkaesq 9y ago
  there's pretty conclusive evidence of her crashing and the circumstances of that. "Conclusive evidence" would be plane wreckage, fragments of her personal belongings (or those of other occupants) and the like. Or even statements from witnesses about a plane going down that matched the Electra's description. But we have none of that. The only thing we have "conclusive" evidence for is that at some point she dropped out of radio contact, and was probably low on fuel.
  - abritinthebay 9y ago
    I agree this photo is silly but that’s not quite true - we have partial plane wreckage, of either the same or similar model of plane, and a woman’s bones (now lost). It’s likely she crashed, and likely died on an island. The evidence is extremely suggestive. Not conclusive by any means but more than simply conjecture.
    - kafkaesq 9y ago
      a woman’s bones (now lost). I thought the consensus was that they turned out to be a man's bones (and not even matching Earhart's proportions). Which may explain why they ended up getting "lost". That leaves us with just that patch of aluminum, of unconfirmed origin. I would call that kind of an indication "mildly" rather than "extremely" suggestive.

woliveirajr 9y ago

Shouldn't information from the US government be available now? Not only the picture, bur more information regarding date/time/place/who took it. Her disappearing was a great happening, and it'll be interesting if this photo/hypothesis is correct.

valuearb 9y ago

it seems crazy and impossible. But it reminds me that the Japanese built the two largest battleships ever created, by far, and sailed them for years until sunk at the end of the war, and for decades there were no known pictures of them except those taken during their sinkings by US aitmen. They were pretty good at keeping secrets under wraps.

perseusprime11 9y ago

I am hoping AI can answer these questions more definitely than people second guessing. In general, legends tend to live longer than they may have made out to look.

086421357909764 9y ago

Wasn't Shawn Henry the "Cyber guy"?

adam_seeliger 9y ago
As far as the cyber I agree. We came in with the Internet. We came up with the Internet.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

sideshowb 9y ago

https://xkcd.com/950/ https://xkcd.com/950/

crispytx 9y ago

I'm pretty sure researchers have already found the little island next to which she landed. It appears that she and Fred Noonan died as castaways on the island of Nikumaroro. Bones were found on the island several years later, but have since been lost to history. One researcher even found a piece of aluminum on the island that they believe was used to patch a broken window on her plane.

larryfreeman 9y ago
According to Wikipedia, in the 2007 expedition that found the bones, tests were done to check but the tests were inconclusive: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amelia_Earhart#Speculation_on_disappearance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amelia_Earhart#Speculation_on_...
- crispytx 9y ago
  I was actually referring to bones that were found in the early 1940's and lost around the same time. I think we might be talking about a different set of bones.
jbeales 9y ago
That's the competing theory. Apparently there are two camps of Earhart searchers: Those who believe she crashed in the Marshal Islands and died as a POW, and those who believe she crashed on Nikumaroro and died as a castaway. The Nikumaroro folks[1] mount an expedition & issue press releases every year or so, now it seems like it's time for the team Solomon Islands to take the spotlight for a moment. [1]http://tighar.org/ http://tighar.org/

adam_seeliger 9y ago

Everyone knows she never crashed. She went into the adult movie business under the screen name of: Susan Tickleberry.

doctorRetro 9y ago

"I think it leaves no doubt to the viewers that that's Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan,' Henry told NBC News." Really? Because the only thing I see no doubt of is someone who has reached a conclusion based upon scant evidence, attempting to prime an audience to accept that same conclusion as fact without independent thought or verification.