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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."

8 of 94 comments (clear)

  1. I Love the headline by saloomy · · Score: 5, Funny

    I had no idea Amelia Earhart was bionic and had metal patches!

    1. Re:I Love the headline by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Most people are able to quit aluminum with the patch.

  2. How did they ID the part? by saloomy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Was there a serial number? Was there an inscription? Did she leave a palm print?
    If I had spent millions of dollars, and involved hundreds of people, I'd sure grab on to even the remotest of possibilities so I didn't have to walk away empty handed!
    FTFA:
    The piece, which measures about 24 by 18 inches (61 cm by 46 cm), did not appear to be a standard part of a Lockheed Electra, but TIGHAR researchers recently began to look into the possibility it might have been installed on the plane as a patch after a window was removed, he said. On October 7, a TIGHAR team examined a plane at Wichita Air Services in Newton, Kansas, that was similar to Earhart's aircraft. Because the plane was being restored, it was possible to look at its interior and see where the sheet of metal recovered in 1991 would have fit, Gillespie said.

    Not conclusive... sorry!

    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. Re:How did they ID the part? by 91degrees · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Don't feed me the old "well who else could it have been?" line.

      Why not? There is a possibility it was Earhart. There's also the possibility it was some other white woman visiting an island a hundred miles away from any other land, with no indication of any means of arrival, and no record of this person. I'd have thought that it would have been quite a remarkable, well known woman to do this in the 1930's, and her disapperance would certainly have been equally remarkable.

      Occams razor says Amelia Earhart is by far the most likely option.

    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.

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

    Everything in this article is based on presumption and speculation.