Earhart time line based on eyewitness interviews

Just because everyone and their brother has sent me the New York Times article: 

Finding Amelia Earhart’s Plane Seemed Impossible. Then Came a Startling Clue. Robert Ballard has found the Titanic and other famous shipwrecks. This month his crew started trying to solve one of the 20th century’s greatest mysteries.

Here's my instant reply:

"Hilarious. Demonstrably false. I'm sorry but Bob B has drunk this brand of koolaid. 

Just a matter of time before another face plant in the sand. 

(Seven other missions to the same island. Anyone ever think for a second... hey, maybe I've got the wrong island? No? Okay, that should be obvious.)

I've posted photos of the actual brake plate at EarhartOnSaipan.com found by Dick Spink on Mili Atoll verified by a former NTSB investigator who says on camera "beyond a shadow of doubt" it came from the Electra. 

(Here are some more details at EarhartMovie)

This will continue through October when they will "find" "evidence" on Nikumaroro where she never was. (I got this tip from Elgen Long who said he's seen their evidence, but is convinced someone will "plant it" for them.) I don't know why he's convinced they would (perhaps it was that "fraud" court case in Minnesota) but it's not my desire to sling mud.

Newsflash: She died in a prison on Saipan where US Marines found the plane July 19th 1944, dug up her grave but only found an arm. Sorry. Mystery solved."

Here's what the evidence shows.  And by evidence I actually mean "evidence" instead of theory, conjecture or randomized thinking.

Mike Harris intrepid explorer who
worked with Bob B previously - hiring him
for an earlier Titanic search.

1. She had Fairchild Aerial Reconassaince cameras aboard the Electra. That was reported a number of books, I interviewed the son of the man who installed them. His dad became a policeman after the war. "If my dad said he installed them; he did."

First cell - eyewitness was in cell between her and Fred

2. Her plan was to "turn left to land in the Gilberts" as revealed by Les Kinney in his research and reported on the History channel program.  She did that, but landed elsewhere.

One of her two cells.  This was the first.

3. But she was already "250 NW of Howland" when she did so. Why? Many reasons, including Paul Mantz claiming she did that often (original test flight, she reported she'd done it in Dakkar as well - she passed Fred a note - "Why are we 250 NW of our target?") Same reason Mantz cited. She did it at least two times, and this might have been the same reason.

His father saw her come ashore, detailed the
same information another eyewitness said.

4. Two islanders saw her land the Electra on Mili atoll.  That is two people who were there, fishing, saw her land. Those people were interviewed years later, their relatives interviewed by school teacher/boat builder Dick Spink. Why would they make that up? And if someone is going to claim they made it up - why haven't any other islanders ever anywhere made up something similar?

Saw her on the back of a truck when he was 12.

5. Other islanders saw her come down - in a South African journalist's book from the 1980's he interviewed the Queen of Mili who corroborated the two fishermen's stories.  She brought the plane down - an amazing feat of landing the Eletra on a coral reef, only losing the brake assembly on one side.

The old Garapan prison.

6. Les Kinney, Dick Spink, and Mike Harris interviewed islanders who said that "40 Marshallese" were ordered by the Japanese to drag her plane across the atoll to the inlet where a barge could pick it up. I have satellite photos that clearly show the drag marks. Les, Dick and Mike recovered one of the rail cars left behind that assisted in that transport.

Saw her on the back of a Japanese truck in May 44

7. Dick Spink recovered a number of pieces in his travels, later more piece recovered by Les and Mike as well.  The pieces recovered include a brake assembly part. (cited in these pages.) That piece only fits her model of Electra - it was different later, and only two Electras were in existence with that brake part. That was demonstrated on camera by a former NTSB investigator Jim Hayton in Seattle.

Did some excavation during this trip.

8. There are other parts that could only come from the Electra. (found later, displayed on the History Channel show, which I participated in, but then bowed out of).

His mother treated her wounds in Saipan hospital

9. People on ham radios heard her distress calls - included below this post is research from former federal investigator Les Kinney who researched a ham radio operator who wrote down verbatim what Amelia said, including identifying the island she had landed on and describing it (Mili Atoll.)

Former US Marine Major Rick Spooner said he heard others found a
book of photos of Amelia on Saipan and his fellow Marines claimed
they saw the Electra at Aslito.

On to the eyewitnesses:

10. I filmed Andrew Bryce navy vet tell me that during WWII while stationed on nearby Majuro the stevedore working with him told him how he was one of those who dragged the Electra onto a Japanese barge and took it to a ship. (cited below).

11. That ship was the Kyoshu.  The plane was tied up and transported to Jaluit where a number of people saw it. Including Bilimon Amaron, a local doctor's assistant who treated Amelia and Fred's wounds. He saw the plane, and heard the Japanese call her "Ameera."  He said she spoke to him, but he didn't understand her.  I interviewed Bilimon's lifetime business partner (an irishman from Boston) who said "Bilimon was one of the most honest people I know. We all knew his story - and if he said it happened, it did." Les Kinney has dug up the ship's records - it was in Saipan in July of 1937 and later went to Saipan.

12. Other people saw her on Jaluit - including a frenchman whose ship was confiscated and he was put aboard a ship as a stevedore, and dropped a note in a bottle that was recovered on a French shore and examined by US, British Intelligence prior to WWII that claimed he saw AE. (Public records)

13. A Marshallese congressman reports (on camera below) his father took him down to the docks in Jaluit and showed him the plane, the ship, and told him an American female pilot was aboard - who was a spy.

14. Other islanders on Jaluit heard they had captured a spy.  Amelia herself is quoted as saying "Imagine, me being a spy" - that's public record.  Apparently the Japanese thought so as well.

Fred Goerner interviewed the two GIS who dug
up her body, and the inital woman from Saipan who saw
her come ashore.

15. Eyewitnesses saw her brought up the seaplane dock in Garapan, Saipan. I've had two eyewitnesses on camera who saw her - one who was with her brother at 16, the other was a Congressman whose father told him that he refused to bow his head as ordered and saw her and Fred come ashore. (The Electra was taken by ship to Saipan, and AE and FN by seaplane).

This is the same women, who reiterated what she
saw and it matches what the other eyewitness saw.

16. She was first sent to hospital. I have an interview with the son of a nurse who took care of her and Fred, and swore her son to secrecy - any kind of talk about the Japanese affairs could result in death.  Fred was executed (beheaded) reportedly for "insulting a Japanese officer" but perhaps more likely they thought he was the spy with his military background. (Probably thought he was the actual pilot as well.)  

Devine said he overheard Nabers talk about the Electra,
and later saw the Electra destroyed.

Note: Japan considered Saipan "japanese territory" the same way the US considers Hawaii "US territory."  They lost 30K men defending it, it was the home of their naval HQ, they knew if the Americans took it they could refuel on their way to bombing Tokyo, etc.  Leading up to the war, a number of people were beheaded as "spies" (a British couple), because the Japanese were fortifying the docks for war - something expressly forbidden by the League of Nations in their "mandated islands" agreement.  Many stories of people losing boats or their lives if they got too close to an island like Jaluit (which was rebuilding its docks.)

Doug Bryce saw the Electra in a hangar, same
hangar others claimed to see it.

The infamous "photo" from the Jaluit docks that was found by Les Kinney in ONI files (that was erroneously identified as from a "book" - it was from a loose collection of photographs in a string tied binder - where the librarian has told Les that many authors added photos later. The photo is undated, although the portfolio is dated. Either way, the Marshallese govt issued a notice that those docks in the photograph were not built until 1936.)

Brother Andrew Bryce met the stevedore who
moved the Electra to a Japanese barge to a ship. Learned his
brother had seen the Electra after the war at a family picnic.

17. We have new eyewitnesses who saw her incarcerated on Saipan, including two islanders, one on camera, and one who told his son about seeing her in the Garapan prison.

Marine who decoded the messages about the Electra ("We have found Amelia Earhart's plane Aslito airfield." "We are going to fly Earhart plane at Aslito." (also seen by other GI's) "We are going to destroy the Electra at Aslito." He guarded the plane, his commanding officer was given her briefcase, and he and another GI went down and witnessed the destruction of the Electra.

18. Don't look for the records for Garapan prison; they don't appear to exist. (If they did, they'd tell the tale). In a visit to the Japanese Military Library in Tokyo, I was told that even though they have 19 volumes of detailed records of every prison they maintained from Manchuria to Guam, with prisoner lists and details of everyone taken prisoner from 1935-1944, there is only one set of records that is missing; the records from the prison on Saipan.  The reason, I was told by the head librarian, is because "all of these files went to the US after the war, and these are the ones they returned to Japan..." Got that? The records somehow disappeared between coming to the US and going back to the military library in Tokyo.

Found her briefcase, passport, kept them for
two weeks. Interviewed by Connie Chung and others.

19. However, eyewitnesses saw her in prison, saw her on the back of a truck on Saipan. I have footage of two men in their 80's who were at grade school when a truck stopped for 30 minutes and they could see her - dressed in khakis, blind folded, guarded by Japanese soldiers.  As one man put it "It was the first caucasian woman I'd ever seen - dressed like a man and her hands tied behind her. It's not something you forget."  She was being transported up the coast road prior to the American invasion when this occurred.  (May of 1944). Two other Americans were aboard that truck - also guarded.  (Fred had already been executed for being THE spy.)  Those two American pilots were both executed - military history - one was shot, the other beheaded - and they were dug up to see if their bodies had been tortured for a war crime tribunal (they were not).

The actual brake plate from the Electra found by
Dick Spink on Mili atoll among other pieces.

20. Amelia died in prison of dysentery (Multiple accounts).  She was buried in a spot apparently next to Fred. However, the other two pilots were also buried; hence the discrepancies of islanders pointing to different graves in 1945 (Tom Devine, Robert Wallack had two different cemeteries with islanders saying that an "American pilot" was buried inside). There were three American pilots - two men and a woman.

Manual from identical Electra, showing the dust shield found.

21.  Her body was moved to another burial site. I know this for a fact, because when the GI's sent to dig her up, they only found an "arm and a partial ribcage" (UPI, Chicago Tribune, 1977).

These mini rail cars can be found on Saipan, used for
transport of sugar cane. There is no cane on Mili atoll, yet
these are still there; used for some reason to transport the Electra.

22. US forces landed in June of 44.  Robert Wallack, US Marine says (on camera and in multiple news reports) that he blew open a safe and found her briefcase and passport - kept them for two weeks before being convinced to turn them over.  He told me on camera who he turned it over to.

Jim Hayton, former NTSB investigator demonstrating on camera
how the dust shield fit over the Electra's brake assembly. He owns
a brake assembly from the exact model. (The later models were larger.)

23. US Marines found the Electra July 19th, 1944 in Aslito airfield.  I know that's the date because Julious Nabers claimed he decoded the message the day they found it (which was the day they liberated the airfield.) Nabers saw the briefcase as it was brought to his CO. (He repeated verbatim how Wallack describes it).  Nabers was ordered by his CO to go with him to see the plane, subsequently his CO (whose uniform is in a glass case at Quantico) ordered Nabers to "guard the plane" for 24 hours.

Dick Spink, Jim Hayton, me, Mike Harris
in Dick Spink's living room looking at pieces of history.

24. While guarding the plane, a GI (Tom Devine) saw Nabers refuse entry to some brass who said "We know you have Amelia Earhart's airplane, we want to see it." Nabers said "orders is orders."  Tom Devine didn't know who that soldier was, but I interviewed Nabers at his home in Tupelo Mississippi. When I heard him say those words "I told those Navy guys that "Orders is orders" I recognized them as what Devine told me he had heard (a few months earlier, and just prior to his passing.)

Lives on Saipan, came in because his flight instructor
had served in WWII with a Japanese man who claimed
to have been a guard in Garapan and had guarded Amelia.

25. I interviewed Doug Bryce on camera saying that he and some GI's took a jeep from Mt Tapachou down to the airfield to see the Electra.  They all knew what it was - the most famous plane on the planet (and had been missing for only 7 years at that time).  He said he could clearly see the plane, it's markings, guarded by soldiers some 30 feet away.  His description of the hangar matches the hangar that others have pointed to as being where they saw the plane.

Add caption

26. Both Nabers and Devine on camera describe the day (two or three weeks later) when the plane was towed to the center of the airfield and destroyed.  That flaming wreckage was seen by a number of soldiers who reported that in Tom Devine's book on the topic, as well as on camera where they both described the same events.  Of seeing it covered in petrol, then destroyed by a P38. (Why? I don't know, and frankly don't care.)

Briefcase matches both Robert Wallack and Julious Nabers descriptions.

27. I've been to the airfield and know where those planes where "shoved off the runway" by Seabees.  I'm told by the former NTSB investigator that it's a matter of "ground pentrating radar" to find whatever is left of the plane.

28. Finally, I've done enough research to feel that I know where her body was moved to.  If asked, I'm happy to take a crew and film that excavation.

I interviewed 15 new eyewitnesses to what happened to Amelia. Some of them were veterans of the battle to take Saipan, all of them are now gone.  However, their camera footage still exists.

Oliver Knaggs, South African reporter, interviewed numerous
Marshallese who saw her land the Electra.

So there you have it.  

If you search through these posts, you'll find the same details.  No need to dive under water. No need to keep posting "the clue that leads to the clue" stories (unless there's some monetary motivation to keep claiming "we're almost there!")  

A photograph of a brake part in a pool of water is not the same as an NTSB investigator actually demonstrating on camera how the brake plate found on Mili actually fits the exact replica of the brake assembly he happens to own.  The brake assembly that was unique to her plane. No - not a photograph - but a live, living, real piece of her plane.

Someone asked me "what's the disconnect?" "Why don't they look where she was instead of where she wasn't?" "Why doesn't National Geographic want the truth?" To which I replied:

"It is crazy... in light of me spending two hours on the phone with Nat Geo reporters laying it out piece by piece. I spoke to the editor of National Geographic magazine and she directed me to speak to her two reporters. Some of that information made it into an online piece. 

By why the disconnect? No clue. Could be money. (Here is a doc I made prior to getting the 15 new eyewitnesses.)

The people sponsoring this latest have done 7 other expeditions to the same isle, all money raised is spent on these 7 trips (and charges of fraud from one investor in Minnesota). 

When we were on Saipan interviewing eyewitnesses, these same guys put in a front page article in the Saipan paper claiming we were creating "false memories" in these islanders for money. I did an interview with the same paper the following day replying that it takes a special kind of racism to claim natives from these islands were making up what they saw. 

Over 200 people saw her after she landed the plane on Mili and saw her taken and incarcerated on Saipan. There are zero eyewitnesses on any other island. If locals were inventing the story why not also elsewhere? Guam? Or Nikumaroro? 

If people deny that eyewitnesses saw what they saw, who corroborate what others saw, there's only one reason i can think of why they wouldn't be believed. 

Either way I know where her plane is buried, know where her body was moved to (pretty good idea) and am thrilled she's back in the news. 

Sorry to report that it appears the US govt sent her to her death (mistakes made but as a result of) and has never admitted it. 

Truth sets everyone free.

Evidence Earhart was on Saipan in 1937

In light of the recent competing headlines, I'm putting together a timeline of events for those who need to understand what actually happened to Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan.

1. As the History Channel show reported, Earhart's Electra encountered a storm near Howland that pushed the Electra off course and NW of Howland.  (As noted on this blog, I was invited to participate in the show, was part of the sizzle reel used to sell the show to History Channel.  But because I have my own projects, I deferred from participating. However, the show was accurate as to the research I've seen. The photograph and the evidence of why and how she turned to the Gilberts was new to me.) When Amelia turned to "fly to the Gilberts" as the show reported - the first island she came upon was not in the Gilberts - it was Endriken Isle in Mili.

Endriken Island - at high tide. Low tide you could "land a 747" according
to one researcher who's been there.

How do we know this for a fact?

First of all, a number of people saw her plane land.  The Queen of Mili Atoll was interviewed in Oliver Knagg's book "Amelia Earhart: Her Last Flight." I interviewed the cameraman who filmed that footage of his trip to the Marshalls. He confirmed the details that are in his book (and that the footage is in legal limbo but exists)

Pretty soon, it's going to be swamped. Google Earth

Oliver Knaggs on Saipan 1983
Looking at a cell before the metal bars removed.

On a recent trip to the Marshalls, Mike Harris, Les Kinney and Dick Spink all heard from islanders that claimed the Japanese had asked them to take her plane off of Mili atoll. 

Dick Spink spoke directly to islanders whose parents were fishing at the same fishing hole that exists to this day.  They brought a Japanese barge into the harbor, dragged the plane across the island, and put it aboard the Japanese barge.

Dick Spink found a number of pieces of the plane from his six trips to search the island.  He found a red painted piece of a cap, he found a piece of metal that could only fit her plane, and on their recent excursion, Les Kinney found a piece of rolled aluminum that could have come from her plane.  

I interviewed a retired NTSB official who showed me how the piece from her plane fit the exact same wheel - and in his professional opinion "the plane part could only come from her Electra."  That's not any opinion. That's a professional opinion of an NTSB investigator Jim Hayton who has testified before Congress.

Dick Spink, former NTSB investigator Jim Hayton, myself
and Mike Harris at Dick Spink's table, looking over the plane parts
and his extensive research. Photo copyright Dick Spink

So the History Channel episode only showed 1 piece from her plane. According to the NTSB expert I interviewed on camera, there is at least one other part for certain, and a smaller piece that could have come from her plane - in his professional opinion. 

The fact that no other plane parts from any other plane have been found in or near the island is also key.

NTSB Investigator Jim Hayton showing how this dust shield fit on the identical wheel rim,
unique to only this version of the Electra. It fit perfectly.
Photo Copyright Richard Martini 2014

The dust shield from the 1937 Electra manual. It describes the exact same
piece that Spink found. Copyright Richard Martini

Piece of a plane with red trim found on Mili atoll.
Comparing it to an actual piece of AE's Electra. Copyright Richard Martini.

Note the color red above - Not the same color to the eye
but analysis was inconclusive that it was the same paint.
Could have been.  But not definitively. Copyright Richard Martini.

So we know that a silver plane came down in Mili in July 1937. We know (as reported) that two caucasians survived, we know that one of them was a woman. The plane left behind a trail of it's being dragged across the island.  According to locals, it was put aboard a Japanese barge and taken away.

2.  The plane was first taken to Majuro, where a stevedore claims he first brought the Electra.  It was then taken, along with Amelia and Fred to Jaluit. (And from there she and Fred and the plane were taken to Saipan.)

Navy Vet Andrew Bryce, from Denver,
said he worked with a stevedore on Majuro who claimed he
moved the plane from Mili to a Japanese barge to Majuro. Photo Copyright Richard Martini

How do we know this for a fact?

Footage Copyright Mike Harris

Oscar de Brum, former Congressman from the Marshalls, who has testified before Congress, tells us in the clip at the end of this post, that he was there when his father took him to the dock and showed him the plane on back of the ship.  He remembers the moment clearly.  (Footage shot by Mike Harris in the Marshalls in 1980.)

Copyright Mike Harris

Bilimon Amaron was taken aboard the ship and tended to her and Fred's wounds.  His testimony was repeated in other places, both on camera and in print.  His reputation is beyond reproach - as his business partner of 40 years claims in his clip below.

Jaluit docks in the office of Naval Intelligence file.
Photograph demonstrates illegal fortification of the harbor
by the Japanese govt. contrary to their league of nations treaty.
They left the league in 1935, the dock was built in 1936

The photograph from the History channel shows a number of people on a dock in 1937. Photographic experts claim that the photo of Fred is a match.  

The naked eye, looking at the back of the woman crouching on the deck - looks like Amelia's shoulders and back. Having access to over 5000 photographs of her, and 30 hours of archival footage, I can say that I instantly spotted it when I saw the photograph. 

Copyright Mike Harris.

The photo also shows what Oscar de Brum and Bilimon Amaron claim they saw - the Electra on the back of the ship.  (In Bilimon's case, by the time he was visiting her aboard the ship, it was already in a sling at the back of the ship according to his testimony below.)

Copyright Mike Harris

As noted on this blog, two other eyewitnesses spoke about the fortifications of the harbor in 1937 and how they were arresting people for seeing them.  As mentioned early, two British subjects were executed for spying in the Marshalls in 1936, and De Bisschop's account refers to a British and American who appear to have "disappeared" for spying.

So a number of people claim to have seen Amelia and Fred and the Electra at Jaluit docks in 1937.  The photograph appears to corroborate their testimony - but it doesn't need to.  (Unless you inherently don't believe what islanders have to say.)

3. At least two people on camera claim they saw her, or their parent saw her come ashore on Saipan.  Josephine Blanco Akiyama, and a former Congressman from Saipan tell the same story - one who lives on Saipan, one who has lived near SF for 40 years - that of the two prisoners being led ashore and everyone told to "lower their eyes."  Clearly Josephone and the Congressman's father did not,and repeated their stories. (see the clip below where his father describes the same story that Josephine reports)

Ray's mom treated her in the hospital. Copyright Richard Martini

Many Saipanese saw her in Garapan - one woman's mother cleaned her clothes, Ray Guiterrez's mother tended to her in the hospital (which is now the war museum on Saipan) others saw her in her prison cell.  Ultimately they claim that she died in prison - Fred Goerner's witnesses in 1963 say she died of dysentery.

This man and his brother saw her on the back of a truck
in Garapan in 1937 when he was 12. "First caucasian woman I've ever seen,
dressed like a man, in Japanese custody.  It's not something you forget."
Another Saipanese businessman confirmed this story, as he saw
her on the same day further down the road. Copyright Richard Martini

She was buried and her body was dug up by two GI's.  Those GIs have been interviewed by a number of people, but in the Chicago Tribune in 1977, (UPI, January) they claimed they only partially recovered her body ("an arm and a partial ribcage").  

Her briefcase. Same case described by
two GIs who did not know each other.
This is her packing it for the last flight.

Her briefcase was found in a safe in Garapan by US Marine Robert Wallack. Inside her briefcase was her passport, maps and other papers "dry as a bone." 

Robert told me on camera that he was surprised, and kept the briefcase for two weeks before turning it over to the 82nd's Louis Wallace.  Wallace's assistant, Earskin Nabors cataloged the briefcase, and described it to me in an interview - the same case.

Both men described the briefcase to me - both had never seen a photograph of it. Their independent versions described the EXACT SAME BRIEFCASE.

Josephine saw her come up the docks in 1937. Photo copyright Richard Martini

Here's Josephine in 1937 with the Doctor with
whom she shared her story. It was he who directed
authorities to interview Josephine at the time. From her own book. Copyright Josephine Blanco

EJ Nabers, Copyright Richard Martini

Nabers decoded a message on June 19, 1944 that "Amelia Earhart's airplane has been found at Aslito airfield."  

He decoded the message in triplicate which Wallace had to sign.  (Nabers said he was "surprised" by his commanding officers lack of reaction.)  

Wallace ordered Nabers to "guard the plane" which he did for 24 hours. While guarding the plane, some "navy brass" came to see the plane and loudly declared "we know you have Earhart's airplane in there, we want to see it."  

Nabers refused their entry, to the point of drawing his service weapon.
"Orders is orders" he told me he said.

My friend Bob, who found her briefcase and held onto it for 2 weeks.
He turned it over to Nabor's CO. Copyright Richard Martini

Tom Devine, a US army vet in the postal service witnessed that conversation.  He said it to me on camera before I interviewed Nabers - and did not know who Nabers was.  

It was Devine's claim that he saw the Electra on Saipan
that prompted a state dept meeting in Tokyo with the Captain of
the Koshu and others, including General MacArthur
who promised to "get to the bottom of this."  He did not. 
Copyright Richard Martini

Nabers went on to say that he turned the briefcase over to a Navy man from ONI (whom I have been able to identify) and later, decoded a message they were going to fly the Electra.

Her initial cell, yards from where Fred Noonan
was reportedly kept. Copyright Richard Martini

Exterior of the cell Copyright Richard Martini

According to numerous eyewitnesses (in Tom Devine's books) a number of GIs saw the plane "fly around the field" on the south end of the island.  

Aslito had a number of intact hangars when it was liberated
on June 19, 1944

At about this time, Douglas Bryce, a radio repair man saw the plane in its hangar on Aslito.  He was told "Did you know they found Earhart's airplane?" and he and fellow soldiers drove down from Mt. Tapachou to see it. That testimony is in the footage below.  

Doug Bryce described the hangar to me in detail, and I was able to locate it precisely on the airfield, which matches photographs from the era.  It was one of the few hangars left intact.  Other people have said they saw the plane in the same hangar (including Nabers, who guarded it for 24 hours.)

Some of the wreckage on Alisito - but the Electra
was not only intact, but flyable.

Finally, Nabers reports that he decoded a message that said they were going to destroy the plane.  He and other soldiers went out to watch this occur - I've stood in the spot where they witnesses the burning of her plane. He gave me the names of the other fellows who went with them. He said at some point he realized "they shouldn't be there" but stayed to watch as the Electra was destroyed. 

A number of veterans saw the plane "on fire," reported that detail in Tom Devine's books - but Tom himself claims that he heard the explosion, and went down to the field - and the same plane he had seen close up only days before had been set afire. (see his clip in the footage below)

As Doug Bryce said in his interview "We all knew what
her plane looked like. It was the most famous plane
on the planet and had disappeared 7 years earlier."

Eyewitnesses seeing the same event - who had never met, yet repeated their stories to me on camera 70 years later.

Here they are discussing it on my camera:

And finally, the original press release prepared by the Foreign Office of the Marshall Islands.  I understand that they took the time to amend it - I guess so as not to not offend people - but the amended version does nothing to argue any facts differently than original one. I'm a journalist as well as a filmmaker.  And the amended press release does not refute the original press release, or amend it in any way.  I suggest allowing the truth to set one free is always allowable in all cases.  But I have posted both, to be fair, to show how they amended the original.  

That still doesn't mean the photograph is incorrect, or that it does not depict Fred Noonan, Amelia Earhart and the Electra on the back of a barge in 1937.  All it's doing is giving confirmation of the above eyewitness stories.  

Not conflicting. Not contrary. Some are by Caucasians for those who can only hear what Caucasians say - and some are from native islanders - for those who actually want to hear what they said or saw without the filter of a Caucasian point of view.

As noted earlier - an investigator has further documents that he's going to publish when he finishes his book.  Being meticulous,  he says he does not want to release his evidence without proof where his documents came from and how they got there.  I cannot reveal what's in them, only report I've been told that they confirm that everything in the above reports is accurate. -- That she came down in Mili, that the US intercepted and decoded that fact, but that they could not reveal they knew she had been arrested by the Japanese because it would prove they had broken their codes. And like Churchill and the Enigma machine revelations - "lives were sacrificed" for that intelligence. 

In this case, the lives of Fred Noonan and Amelia Earhart.

Again, I don't know why these stories make people upset nor am I interested in arguing about it.  These are simply eyewitness reports of what people saw. They are consistent. They can be corroborated. 

There are no other islanders on any other island who've told any other story like them. If they were being made up - wouldn't someone have come up with some alternate story? 

These people's stories have been told without any promise of money, fame or other motivation. They just wanted to speak the truth about something they witnessed, or their family member told them. In the case of one interviewee, he said "I don't care what happens to me for telling this story, but I wanted to speak the truth."  Obviously this Saipan local had been threatened in the past or feared for what he said about Earhart. Why or by whom, I don't know.  I was startled to hear him say it on camera.

Some were ridiculed for years by others who are/were convinced their version is correct. But none of those dissenting people - the debunkers - have ever met or interviewed a single eyewitness to corroborate their claims or denials. That's telling in and of itself.  

Finally - I'm not interested in arguing about why these people took the time to speak to me on camera about something they witnesses, saw or heard - because it's clear to me why they've done so and should be to anyone with open eyes.

Here are excerpts of the above interviews: