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Researchers Claim Metal "Patch" Found On Pacific Island Is From Amelia Earhart

Posted by samzenpus on from the lost-and-maybe-found dept.

An anonymous reader writes Amelia Earhart disappeared in 1937, but scientists may have now uncovered where she ended up. Researchers have identified a piece of aluminum, which washed up on a remote Pacific island, as dated to the correct time period and consistent with the design of Earhart's Lockheed Electra. From the article: "The warped piece of metal was uncovered on a 1991 voyage to the island of Nikumaroro in the Republic of Kiribati by The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR), which has spent millions of dollars searching for Earhart's plane in a project that has involved hundreds of people. 'We don't understand how that patch got busted out of (the plane) and ended up on the island where we found it, but we have the patch, we have a piece of Earhart's aircraft,' TIGHAR executive director Ric Gillespie said."

4 of 94 comments (clear)

  1. Re:How did they ID the part? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    They mention the plate was found in a photo in another article.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/10942529/Amelia-Earhart-mystery-1937-photograph-could-be-clue-to-fate-of-aviator-who-disappeared-on-round-the-world-flight.html

  2. Re:How did they ID the part? by Charliemopps · · Score: 5, Informative

    The linked article sucks, doesn't even show it.
    Check this out:
    http://news.discovery.com/hist...

    Looks pretty good to me.

    Also, Amelia Earharts crash site was never a mystery in the first place. They found her body in 1940, on this very same island
    http://news.discovery.com/hist...

    A woman's shoe, an empty bottle and a sextant box whose serial numbers are consistent with a type known to have been carried by Noonan were all found near the site where the bones were discovered.

    So what are the odds that a white woman of earharts build, along with western womans shoe, and a sextent would be found on an island a few hundred miles from where earhart went missing and a piece of aluminum that would fit the window of her plane?

  3. Earhart Click Bait by kolbe · · Score: 3, Informative

    Everything in this article is based on presumption and speculation.

  4. Re:How did they ID the part? by RabidReindeer · · Score: 4, Informative

    I saw the picture of the plain with the patch on it. Apparently the patch was used to cover up what had been an observation window.

    Aluminum doesn't discolor much, but the fingerprint wasn't color, it was the rivet pattern.