Sonar image may show Amelia Earhart's plane

[garbon]

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

A 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!

Also, never watch that terrible movie with Hillary Swank. Teaches you that Amelia was terrible and didn't know how to fly.

[HVC]

Well to be fair to the movie she did crash. Not the best proof of being a good pilot

[Grinning_Colossus]

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

[Caliga]

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

Yes, and  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.

[garbon]

Well to be fair to the movie she did crash. Not the best proof of being a good pilot

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.

[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.

[Ed Anger]

Women. 

[Syt]

Anomaly = news = Languish thread!

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

[DGuller]

I hope she's found safe and sound.

[garbon]

Anomaly = news = Languish thread!

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

I felt like Tim when I saw this article.

[derspiess]

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. 

[garbon]

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.

[Caliga]

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

[garbon]

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.

[derspiess]

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!