Sonar image may show Amelia Earhart's plane

Started by garbon, May 31, 2013, 08:27:38 AM

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garbon

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/05/30/amelia-earhart-plane-sonar/2372085/

QuoteA team of experts that has been chasing Amelia Earhart's elusive trail for years may be closer than ever to solving the mystery of her 1937 disappearance.

The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) had more than a decade ago pinpointed the Pacific island of Nikumaroro as the location where her plane likely went down; now, they say newly analyzed underwater sonar images taken during a 2012 island visit support their theory.

What's described by Deutsche Welle as a "grainy" photo reveals something about 600 feet below the water's surface, says TIGHAR: an "anomaly."

"The most prominent part of the anomaly appears to be less than 32 feet long," explains TIGHAR on its website; it notes the plane was 38 feet 7 inches long.

Discovery reports that the anomaly "lines up nicely" with another possible debris field.

"If our theory about what happened is correct"—that theory being that Earhart's plane landed on reef flats but soon washed into the sea—"this is exactly what we would expect to see in just the place we would expect to see it," the group's executive director tells Deutsche Welle.

Now TIGHAR is hoping to secure funding for an "independent comprehensive analysis of all the sonar data" obtained last year and a trip back to the island. In the meantime, a quasi-independent assessment from the inventor of the submersible vehicle used in last year's search lends credence: "This target looks very promising. Definitely not a rock, it's in the correct location on the reef."

Anomaly = news = Languish thread! :w00t:

Also, never watch that terrible movie with Hillary Swank. Teaches you that Amelia was terrible and didn't know how to fly. :(
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."

I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

HVC

Well to be fair to the movie she did crash. Not the best proof of being a good pilot :P
Being lazy is bad; unless you still get what you want, then it's called "patience".
Hubris must be punished. Severely.

Grinning_Colossus

Are these the people who think that she lingered for a while on a desert island before being eaten by crabs?
Quis futuit ipsos fututores?

Caliga

Quote from: Grinning_Colossus on May 31, 2013, 08:32:26 AM
Are these the people who think that she lingered for a while on a desert island before being eaten by crabs?
Yes, and  :rolleyes: at the 'big announcement'.

Even though I really don't agree with TIGHAR's theory I've lurked on their forums for years just because I find it interesting how everything is pretty much an open book there.  The Earhart thing is Ric Gillespie's main source of income so he's going to do everyything he can to keep the theory alive as long as possible.  I'm not calling him a con artist or anything but he has huge financial incentive to keep it going no matter what.

Also, the CNN story on this said an "analyst" spotted the sonar anomaly.  The "analyst" in question is a goof on their forums named Richie Conroy who is in essence the Raz of TIGHAR (no offense, Raz).... dude is obsessed with the TIGHAR theory and pretty much spends all day looking at imagery and data and posting on the forums.  He's a weird British dude... maybe more accurately described as a cross between Raz and Tyr.  99% of what he posts is utter rubbish; he just got lucky this time.
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garbon

Quote from: HVC on May 31, 2013, 08:29:35 AM
Well to be fair to the movie she did crash. Not the best proof of being a good pilot :P

Oh I mean not saying that the movie wasn't truthful, just that she's not the icon that we Americans were told to venerate as children. Some bits from the film - and I know several are true:

1) At the start of the movie she nearly falls out of a plane!
2) She also acts like an idiot when she accidentally lands in Ireland and was aiming for Paris
3) While it's fine that she wants to be a single lady, she's really just awful to the men that love her.
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."

I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

Caliga

IIRC when she decided to fly around the world, originally they were going to start from Honolulu and go west instead of east, but as soon as she took off from Honolulu she ground looped her plane and damaged it so severely that it tooks months to get the round-the-world flight going again.
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Ed Anger

Stay Alive...Let the Man Drive

Syt

Quote from: garbon on May 31, 2013, 08:27:38 AM
Anomaly = news = Languish thread! :w00t:

The biggest anomaly in this case is that you pre-empted Tim in posting this. :)
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.
—Stephen Jay Gould

Proud owner of 42 Zoupa Points.

DGuller


garbon

Quote from: Syt on May 31, 2013, 11:27:40 AM
Quote from: garbon on May 31, 2013, 08:27:38 AM
Anomaly = news = Languish thread! :w00t:

The biggest anomaly in this case is that you pre-empted Tim in posting this. :)

I felt like Tim when I saw this article. :D
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."

I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

derspiess

Quote from: garbon on May 31, 2013, 08:42:14 AM
3) While it's fine that she wants to be a single lady, she's really just awful to the men that love her.

Figured you'd consider that a positive. 
"If you can play a guitar and harmonica at the same time, like Bob Dylan or Neil Young, you're a genius. But make that extra bit of effort and strap some cymbals to your knees, suddenly people want to get the hell away from you."  --Rich Hall

garbon

Quote from: derspiess on May 31, 2013, 12:59:12 PM
Quote from: garbon on May 31, 2013, 08:42:14 AM
3) While it's fine that she wants to be a single lady, she's really just awful to the men that love her.

Figured you'd consider that a positive. 

Like I said, I think it was fine that she wanted to be a single lady in such a time - but that doesn't mean that her treating a bunch of people like shit is a good thing.
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."

I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

Caliga

:mellow: She was a vain egomaniac, so she treated people exactly as one should expect her to have treated them.
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garbon

Quote from: Caliga on May 31, 2013, 01:03:10 PM
:mellow: She was a vain egomaniac, so she treated people exactly as one should expect her to have treated them.

Yes but that's not the image presented to American children. Really, I don't see why we had to learn so much about her at all other than that she was a woman. Many more admirable women though.
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."

I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

derspiess

Quote from: garbon on May 31, 2013, 01:02:08 PM
Like I said, I think it was fine that she wanted to be a single lady in such a time - but that doesn't mean that her treating a bunch of people like shit is a good thing.

But that makes her a bitchy woman.  And she wouldn't allow any man to hold her back from doing what she wanted!
"If you can play a guitar and harmonica at the same time, like Bob Dylan or Neil Young, you're a genius. But make that extra bit of effort and strap some cymbals to your knees, suddenly people want to get the hell away from you."  --Rich Hall