An artical on remains that were found that may lead to where Amelia may have landed and survived.

I thought this would be good to share as it talks about some of the things that were done "westerner" style and how the pocket knife was smashed to make a spear.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101218/ap_on_re_us/us_search_for_amelia

Fascinating. Let's hope they get lucky on the DNA analysis.

Interesting. According to the article, over the decades the island has been occupied on and off by several groups, including a Coast Guard unit during WW II.

I saw that on Discovery Channel iirc. Interesting that the fires they found were found to most likely not be from the Coast Guard guys. What they need to find now is a Lockheed Electra . . . TIGHAR has been looking for Amelia for a long time . . .

+1 on TIGHAR and their efforts: fact based scientific method based research for almost 20 years. Their next expedition, number 7, they hope to have a large enough underwater search (they may have to go down to around 1000 feet) to find one of the engines.

There is a good video, about 20 minutes long, that describes their theory: http://vimeo.com/7715435

Also, if they are right, Earhart and Noonan had to survive on the island, and possibly did so for weeks or months. Some of the artifacts they found were a broken folding pocket knife and glass bottles with partly melted bottoms, as if they had been in a fire to boil water. There is no natural fresh water on the island: they had to catch what they could from rain.

Assuming it was them on the island, the untold story of their survival and sad passing makes for some interesting thoughts on our own survival plans and what they should/could have had with them to have allowed them to survive and be rescued. Note that for at least a couple of nights, they were able to (apparently) get radio messages out that direction finding put in the area of the island . . . to no avail

Now, if we could only find the artifacts (bones, shoes, sextant box)that the British Colonial Officer collected in 1940 . . .he thought then that it was, in fact, Earhart's remains.

That's fascinating, Tyber.

Thank you for the link.

Wow, that would be something if the DNA matches. I was just going through some (very) old files of mine and found the report I did on Amelia Earhart back in the 8th grade (including the drawings I did of her). I've been fascinated with Amelia ever since!

This is very exciting. They will be conducting the test for the DNA within a few miles of my house as I live in Norman OK.



http://www.thirdage.com/news/amelia-earhart-mystery-have-amelia-earharts-bones-been-found_12-20-2010

Cool story. If the DNA pans out it would provide closure for a mystery that has people mystified for better than 70 years. On such an island water would be a challenge to obtain in any significant quantities. Without any rainfall, and lacking suitable equipment for extracting fresh from salt water, it is doubtful they could last more than a few days.

If sufficient numbers of good sized fish could be obtained there is a way of sucking the water from them, generally you cut a notch through the spine behind the head and suck, but it is not likely that anyone in 1937 knew about such methods.

This was a time before reverse osmosis and without suitable vessels for boiling salt water and condensing fresh the output would be minimal.

A solar still would be an option, the Plexiglas from the plane would be suitable and vegetation or dark salt water soaked cloth would provide vapor, but I doubt many people knew about such methods in 1937.

Not every situation is survivable.

Pretty fascinating. Please post any updates that become available.

HJ