So what really happened to Amelia Earheart?

[ampguy]

Just watched a National Geographic documentary on it. Have previously seen Discovery, 20/20 and other TV shows about it, and read the Long&Long and a couple of other books.

 

[robklurfield]

and, your conclusion is?

 

[Leigh Youdale]

Well, this could get interesting. Do we have a thread for conspiracy theories?

 

[ampguy]

Well, her mom did think the Japanese captured her on the Marshall Islands.

You don't want to think that a mother doesn't know where their daughter is, right?

 

[John Lawrence]

I seem to remember reading something by Gore Vidal which had some speculation as to what happened. Can't remember the title of the piece, but it was in an anthology published by Granta magazine.

John

 

[ampguy]

interesting

interesting

Earheart was in love with Gore's father, but likely married Putnam since the relationship wasn't going anywhere with Vidal, and Putnam could get her the plane and funding for the trip.

I seem to remember reading something by Gore Vidal which had some speculation as to what happened. Can't remember the title of the piece, but it was in an anthology published by Granta magazine.

John

 

[Leigh Youdale]

Sounds like a few people are still guessing or half remembering stuff they heard once long ago, so may I suggest getting hold of a copy of a book I have which is a fairly detailed analysis of events. Your local library may have it or be able to obtain it on request.
It is at the very least, a plausible hypothesis which in the end game involved planning errors, last minute changes, navigational error, time differences, fuel shortage. Basically it postulates that she missed her rendezvous and bypassed her destination - or may even have run out of fuel shortly before and so failed to make landfall.
The book is >300 pages (paperback) and is titled "Amelia Earheart - The Mystery Solved" and was written by Elgen and Marie Long in 1999. ISBN is 0-684-86005-8. Published by Simon & Shuster as a paperback in 2001.
Have a good read!

 

[ampguy]

Hi Leigh, I read that book even before it was published, but I do have the one you are referencing in both print from 1999 Touchstone 0-684-86006-6 and also the 11/1999 "Advance Uncorrected Reader's Proof from Simon & Schuster" 0-684-86005-8.

The Longs have written an excellent book here. However, we now know since those 11 years have passed since the writing, that two organizations have performed the search at 17,000 feet beyond the 2000 square mile area of uncertainty that the Longs predicted the plane would be at on pages 246 and 247.

We also know that General Nimitz and several eyewitnesses have independently accounted for Amelia on the Marshall Islands.

See here:

http://www.ameliaearhartmovie.com/

 

[Sonnar Brian]

I always like the Star Trek Voyager ending for Amelia - captured by aliens, put into suspended animation, and revived in the 24th century.

 

[Leigh Youdale]

Hi Leigh, I read that book even before it was published, but I do have the one you are referencing in both print from 1999 Touchstone 0-684-86006-6 and also the 11/1999 "Advance Uncorrected Reader's Proof from Simon & Schuster" 0-684-86005-8.

The Longs have written an excellent book here. However, we now know since those 11 years have passed since the writing, that two organizations have performed the search at 17,000 feet beyond the 2000 square mile area of uncertainty that the Longs predicted the plane would be at on pages 246 and 247.

We also know that General Nimitz and several eyewitnesses have independently accounted for Amelia on the Marshall Islands.

See here:

http://www.ameliaearhartmovie.com/

Thanks for that info - I was unaware of it but will certainly follow it up. I have mixed feelings about the prisoner story although they're feasible. I had a great uncle who was an aviator in WW! and was lost on a flight one morning on the Franco-Belgian border only a few weeks before the war ended. No trace was ever found of him. For years the family line was that he had probably been taken prisoner by the Germans and eventually fell into Russian hands and may turn up one day. My own view, given the frequency with which this occurred, is that the RFC pilots, refused parachutes by their superiors, had no option but to go down with their aircraft. Made of fabric, timber and loaded with fuel they most often caught fire and burned to the ground. In fact one of his letters from Egypt where he learned to fly, describes landing his Sopwith SE5 by peering out the side of the cockpit because the engine was on fire and he couldn't see looking straight ahead.
The Germans had parachutes but the British High Command thought this was cowardly!