New Evidence Indicates Amelia Earhart Survived For a Time on Pacific Atoll

In light of new evidence publicly released Friday showing artifacts believed to have been Amelia Earhart's, the U.S. Navy is prepping a mission to investigate the area where they were found. Next month marks the 75th anniversary of Earhart's disappearance, but the just-announced discovery of personal effects and the evidence of cooking represents the most concrete evidence yet that she did not simply crash into the ocean.

Comments

Re:Who?

[wisnoskij]

I guess the writer assumed, and I would of as well, that every Slashdot user knows at least a little about general history, the history of technology, or has at least watched a little star trek.

She is the most famous pilot ever, and was one back when that it was a huge deal that she was a woman. She eventually wanted to be the first the cross the pacific or something like that and was never heard form again. As as such there are very many myths about her (abducted by aliens, etc.).

Re:Who?

[Anonymous Coward]

Agree with all of the above, except for:

She is the most famous pilot ever ...

I think "most famous pilot ever" has to go to Charles Lindbergh, not only because of his achievements but also the infamous kidnapping of his baby. And if anyone doesn't know who he was, may I suggest you avail yourself of a search engine before you go getting all indignant?

Re:Why US Navy?

[DesScorp]

Why on earth would the US Navy spend taxpayer dollars for this expedition? Unless they have too much money and don't know what to do with it all - which is quite plausible considering the proportion of budget allocated to the military. Meh!

This isn't even a drop in the bucket of the Navy's budget. Hell, this isn't even a fraction of a drop in a bucket. And sailors can always use the practice in honing their skills. Considering that this is truly a national mystery, I don't see the harm in it.

Re:Who?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeager was a test pilot. He wasn't the greatest pilot ever, just the last man standing. The greatest pilot ever is and probably will forever remain anonymous.

Saying that pilots made popular by the media are the greatest ever is like saying Justin Bieber is the best singer ever.

Not good evidence

[technothrasher]

It makes my chuckle that there is a "RECOMMENDED: Are you scientifically literate? Take the quiz" link imbedded into the article, as this 'evidence' from TIGHAR is exactly the opposite of good science. They have been pushing this nonsense for a while. They've decided she was on this island and continue to look only for confirming information to support their hypothesis, rather than attempting to falsify it. They could start by admitting that there have been a lot of people who traveled to and briefly lived on that island throughout the years, particularly many, many pearl divers, and that finding various pieces of junk on the island is completely and entirely consistent with this, and not even slightly compelling evidence that Earhart left this junk.

Re:Who?

[NFN_NLN]

She is the most famous pilot ever...

Really, the most famous pilot EVAR? More famous than the Wright brothers?

Re:Who?

[Anonymous Coward]

How the fuck are Americans supposed to know if the rest of the world knows who Amelia Earhart is. Get off your lazy ass and google her.

Re:Why US Navy?

[Anonymous Coward]

If you can't understand that, you aren't in the Navy. If you are, ask your superiors. They can explain.

Re:Who?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm not from the US but because I've had a basic education I've heard of her. Maybe every word in every summary should link to a dictionary or wikipedia page so even the dumbest visitor understands them?

Tough call

[arcite]

Crash land into the ocean and die relatively instantly.... or land on a chunk of useless rock, last for a few days eating fish or crabs, then dying a slow horrible death from dehydration and exposure.

Re:Tough call

[JWSmythe]

    Just a rough guess from the article, it wasn't a short while. I'd say at least a few weeks. Who knows what finally did them in though. A little while without rain could have depleted their water supply. Exposure to the sun could have done it. There wasn't a mention of any makeshift cover. For all we know, a particularly nasty storm could have swept them out to sea. A 1938 report stated that the highest point was 16 feet above low sea level, and nothing is to say that they camped at the highest point. Looking at the island with Google Maps, it appears the sea sweeps across the southern side on a regular basis.

    It would be nice to think they only survived for days. It could have been months. With no real supplies, something as simple as a cut could have been fatal.

    In any case, they didn't survive. That is very unfortunate, as they could have if they had been found in time.

Re:Tough call

[TFAFalcon]

If there is no fresh water and it doesn't rain for a few days then no technique will help you.

Re:Tough call

[Anonymous Coward]

Fourth option: Thinking Amelia Earhart didn't understand basic survival skills, then finding yourself in a similar situation and dying very quickly because your smugness doesn't protect you when you're in the wild (rather than sitting on your fat ass).

Re:Tough call

[TheGoodNamesWereGone]

Neither of them had had any decent survival training. The Norwich City castaways from 1929 had left a few containers of water behind, but after so many years in equatorial heat chances are it made them sick, if any of it was even left. Niko is frickin' HOT, and they would've weakened quickly even after on a day or two. They may have a had some stores left on the Electra but after that was gone they'd've had to wait for rain. I doubt very much that had any equipement on board to evaporate salt water. Someone else stated that the island was anything but a tropical paradise and they were right. Even some of the fish were poisonous. Someone without serious military-grade survival training would not have lasted very long there.

Re:Who?

[shutdown -p now]

My point was to illustrate that this is highly specific to a particular culture one was born and raised in.

I'm sure that in the English-speaking world, Earhart is much more popular - and, of course, if you use English spellings to search, that's what you're going to get. Searching in Cyrillic, on the other hand, gives (me) 640k hits for Chkalov and 98k hits for Earhart.

And I have no idea what name all the 1.5 billion Chinese would consider first, but I bet it's neither of those. So "world at large" might surprise you as well.

Re:Who?

[YttriumOxide]

a woman known basically only to English/Americans and aviation freaks

As someone who is male, neither American nor English and not particularly interested in aviation; I second that if you haven't heard of Amelia Earhart, you probably didn't pay attention in school (or live in a country that mostly ignores international history to focus too narrowly on its local history (USA does this too, for reference)); don't watch a lot of movies (even movies not about her may reference her from time to time); don't "wikipedia surf"; and are probably rather uninteresting.

I don't mean that as horribly offensive; just that even if you'd never been exposed to knowledge of who she is (which to me seems extremely unlikely on the assumption you live anywhere outside of the 3rd world - you probably just ignored/dismissed/forgot it); you could have at least done a quick Google search to find out.

and certainly in a completly different league than the Wright brothers, Neil Armstrong or even Lindbergh

I'd put her only slightly under the Wright Brothers and Armstrong for name recognition, and way above Lindbergh (when I read the name, it rang a bell, but wasn't immediately clear to me - quick Google search showed me the text "Spirit of St. Louis" and then I remembered).
Note that I did say "for name recognition" - not necessarily for their achievements/activities)