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:

July 9th, History Channel - tune in!

Finally, someone is going to open the door to this tale...



My pals Les Kinney and Dick Spink were brought onto this show to share their research and evidence.  I can see that the show has followed some of my path - including an interview with Ms. Akimaya Blanco, whom I interviewed four years ago.  She's a sweetheart, and deserves to have her story told on a grander scale.

Honestly, they asked for my participation, but they didn't ask for Mike Harris' participation - and Mike is a good pal, and deserves as much credit as anyone for digging up her story.

But credit aside - this isn't about the time that Mike Harris put in - or the time that I've put in - it's about telling the story about what really happened to Amelia Earhart.
 

Ms. Blanco when I interviewed her.

I'm still holding onto the evidence that I have about her - that is beyond what this show will report - including the US Marines who saw her plane and watched as it was destroyed by the US Military... Either way, there's more to the story - what happened to her body and where the wreckage of her plane is located. (Both mysteries I have answers to.)
 

With Dick Spink, Jim Hayton and Mike Harris in Seattle.

Here's to opening the door on the real story!
 

One of the cells she was incarcerated in Saipan

Stay tuned.

The latest eyewitnesses who saw Earhart on Saipan

This is an edited clip of the footage that Mike Harris and I shot while on Saipan. 

 Included are new eyewitnesses who claim they or their relatives saw Amelia Earhart after she disappeared in 1937. There's more info and details below but this clip dovetails with the recent reports of finding pieces of her plane on Mili Atoll. Dick Spink and Les Kinney (Dick found the new pieces on Mili, Les is an investigator with nearly 30 years of investigative experience) are on their way to Saipan to survey where her body was found by US Forces. We wish them the best of luck.

 People may not like what these folks are saying - that Amelia was arrested and incarcerated in prison, that she was buried on Saipan, her body recovered, her plane and briefcase found, her plane was destroyed and buried by US forces - but important to remember these are eyewitness accounts. From US Marines, US war veterans, and people on Saipan who are amused by people who show up without any knowledge of the island.

 Saipan was claimed by Germany, sold to Spain, then became Japanese, and was part of Japan territory until 1944. (It was then run by the CIA until 1963, and is now US territory, so when you land at the airport it says "Welcome to the US." No different than Puerto Rico. So when her plane was picked up from Mili Atoll by the Japanese in 1937, according to these reports, it was taken to Japanese territory, where their Naval Headquarters was located. (Much the way Pearl Harbor was considered US territory, even though it was yet to be a state in 1941.)

 According to these eyewitness reports, Amelia was incarcerated on Japanese territory, in a Japanese cell by the Japanese authorities. Her briefcase was found by US Marine Robert Wallack, her plane was found on Aslito airfield by US Marines in June of 44, and US Marine E. Julious Nabers under command of Lt. Col. Clarence R. Wallace, decoded the messages that it had been found and was ordered to guard it. He says he guarded the plane on Aslito for 24 hours then decoded messages the military was going to fly it, and eventually destroy it. Other veterans (in this footage) saw it, and eventually watched as it was destroyed under orders from the Navy Dept. The plane was buried on the runway, which is now an international airfield. However, we have information as to where that location is, and have gotten the permits to survey the airfield. We plan on returning to do just that.

 I've been involved in this search since 1988, Mike Harris has been involved since the early 80's, and Les Kinney since around that time as well.  On behalf of Dick Spink, forensic aviation expert Jim Hayton, Les Kinney and Mike Harris (and the others who have contributed and participated) -  I'd say we all have one goal in common - to reveal whatever the truth may be about what happened to her.  We may not all appear in the various news articles regarding the latest "find" or "discovery" but we've all contributed to these revelations in our own personal way. Some of us have more "shoe leather in the game" than others, but at the end of the day it's not about who we are; it's about who she was.

Stay tuned for more details.

The Latest from Aviation Week on Science and the Electra pieces found on Mili Atoll

Aviation week weighs in on the evidence from the Paris air show.

http://aviationweek.com/paris-air-show-2015/will-disappearance-amelia-earhart-be-scientifically-explained-long-last

Purdue Archives

"Will Disappearance Of Amelia Earhart Be Scientifically Explained At Long Last?"

Paul Jackson Jun 15, 2015

Parker Aerospace has funded a scientific investigation into one of aviation’s greatest mysteries. Will the disappearance of Amelia Earhart be scientifically explained at long last?

The word “closure” did not have its present meaning when, on July 2, 1937, renowned aviatrix Amelia Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, disappeared over the Pacific while flying a Lockheed 10E Electra on a world circumnavigation attempt. For 78 years, theories ranging from the mundane to the bizarre have surrounded the tragedy but, at last, an answer based on irrefutable science might be about to settle the matter beyond reasonable dispute.

A recent expedition to the Pacific by non-profit Amelia Research, Inc., was sponsored by Parker Hannifin Corporation (Hall 5, C210) and accompanied by Jon Jeffery, its Aerospace division’s director of technology and business development. Jeffery told ShowNews, “Parker is involved with many charitable events to promote engineering and aerospace interest in the world (and) saw this as an opportunity to help resolve a longstanding mystery from an engineering-based approach. Parker has a long history of helping solve difficult problems purely for the benefit of mankind.”

(That expedition included Mike Harris, Les Kinney, Dick Spink and Jim Hayton from these pages.)

Lending dimensions to the enormity of the recent search task, one theory has Earhart and Noonan leaving Lae in Papua New Guinea and then running out of fuel near Gardner Island, 420 miles south of their intended destination of Howland Island. However, the Parker reconnaissance was in Mili Atoll, specifically Endrikin, one of its 92 component islands. This is 850 miles northwest of Howland – a not inconsiderable change of focus.

Why the new target? Explained Jeffery, “There were eyewitness reports from many native Marshallese citizens who observed the landing and were involved in helping the Japanese in moving the aircraft across the island to load it onto a Japanese ship for transportation to Saipan.” (The Marshalls were a Japanese possession between the World Wars, and there is even a claim that Earhart and Noonan survived and were taken to a Japanese hospital on nearby Jaluit Atoll.)

(Specifically, an island elder recalled that the Japanese had ordered the islanders to help them move the plane off the atoll.  As reported here earlier, Andrew Bryce, a WWII Veteran from Denver, reported that during WWII a stevedore he worked on Majuro claimed that he had helped move the place from Mili onto a Japanese barge which took the plane to a Japanese ship docked in Majuro (which was then seen in Jaluit by many eyewitnesses.)  Veteran Andrew Bryce, who was interviewed about his experiences, is the brother of Douglas Bryce, who saw the Electra in a hangar on Saipan during WWII when he was a radio repairman.)

The expedition was prompted by Amelia Research’s discovery in 2014 of metal items which could have been from a Lockheed. The Parker project team arrived in January 2015 to follow-up with more sophisticated searching equipment.

An area 75 x 300 feet has yielded two small aluminum plates, one with some red paint, which was the color of the trim on Earhart’s aircraft, plus other metal items, at least one matching a component of an Electra’s wheel-well. Jeffery’s team of laboratory specialists is now examining the chemical “signature” of the metal and hopes to be able to present its findings later this summer.

Courtesy Dick Spink - piece found on Mili

Jim Hayton demonstrates where this other piece fit on the Electra

For more positive identification, says Jeffery, “the team gathered parts from another Lockheed Electra from the same time period; parts from a Japanese “Zero” fighter and “Betty” bomber; and parts from a 1946 Piper J3 Cub, to compare and show differences.  Also, the team may have access to paint and aluminum samples that is confirmed from Amelia's aircraft”.

The last remark refers to part of the starboard engine nacelle that was removed during an earlier accident repair. The paint’s chemical structure will be a further reality-check, for it must be remembered that U.S.-made aluminum was exported to Japan until an embargo was imposed at the end of 1939.

Parker Aerospace is performing the role of detective, not judge or jury. After its scientists’ findings are disclosed, it will be up to officials of Amelia Research, and others, to weigh the facts and arrive at a decision. “Parker currently doesn't have any plans for further sponsorship beyond supporting verification of the parts came from the Earhart aircraft,” notes Jeffery.

But someone else does. This very month, a different group of historians is on Gardner Island (now known as Nikumaroro) to search for wreckage just offshore, as well as evidence of a castaways’ campsite, hoping to substantiate an alternative theory. Signs are it’s going to be a busy few months for Earhart followers.

The initiative by Parker Hannifin may, or may not, silence the incorrigible conspiracy theorists and achieve public “closure” but, at least, the responsible authorities in Washington, DC, might be able to close their dusty files. At the FAA, for example, the N-number of Earhart’s Electra (16020) is on the “permanently reserved” list in her name, thus unavailable for reissue to another aircraft, as would be usual.

And at the National Air and Space Museum, Tom D. Crouch, senior curator, has declared that the Electra is “on the bottom of the Pacific” 18,000 feet down, tantalizingly close to its destination at Howland. Endrikin or Gardner desert island landings are, therefore, dismissed by a government-funded entity not accustomed to being contradicted.

(Elgen Long also believes her Electra crashed in the ocean. However, he told me point blank that he would be "thrilled" if it turned out that these pieces are from her Electra. Stay tuned.)

If Parker’s public-spirited sponsorship and technical analysis proves the Museum’s unsupported assertion to be 18,005 feet in vertical error, not to mention over 850 miles horizontally askew, it will have been money well spent."

Closure (Photo Purdue Archives)

Waiting for the results of the forensic tests...

Just a note to say we're still waiting on the forensic tests being done on the over dozen pieces recovered from Mili Atoll.

Two of the pieces have been examined by a forensic aviation expert, and he believes they are from the Electra.

Recently, members of the team that went to Mili, including a former Federal investigator, a former United Pilot who owns an actual piece of the Electra, Dick Spink who found the pieces, and forensic expert Jim Hayton met with representatives from the company that sponsored the trip to Mili - Parker Aviation, along with a reporter from National Geographic Magazine, and representatives from Alcoa who will be able to determine in their labs the exact amount of aluminum found in the various pieces.  

One of these hangars may have been where they found the plane,
which resembled this burnt out plane on the runway.

I'm told that some pieces from Japanese airplanes were also brought for testing (not recovered at Mili Atoll, as it was not the site of any aerial battles in WWII) and they will be used for comparison.

Amelia being thorough as usual.

To reiterate, Mike Harris went to the Marshalls in the 1980's and interviewed a number of people who claimed to have seen Earhart or hear that she had landed in Mili Atoll.  Harris and crew returned to Mili and this time interviewed a local man who recalled when the Japanese ordered 40 island men to help them "move the Electra" from where it had come down onto a barge.

A Marshallese man who tended to her wounds, interviewed by Harris in 1980.
His business associate is interviewed in the footage below attesting to his honesty.

The tools used to transport the plane at that time have also been recovered.

There is no rail track on Mili, but these rail cars were apparently used to move the plane

In the following clip are first person accounts from a number of sources.  This footage was shot by Richard Martini along with Mike Harris on Saipan in early 2014.  In the footage, a number of new people come forward to speak about their memories of her arrival on Saipan.  It includes an interview with a business associate of Bilimon Amaron, who said that he tended to Ms. Earhart and Mr. Noonan's wounds when their plane was hoisted onto the Kyoshu in dock in Jaluit.

Ms. Blanco saw Amelia and Fred come ashore, and told the same to Fred Goerner, CBS news man in 1964

There's an interview with the woman that Fred Goerner originally spoke to back in 1964 where she spoke of seeing Amelia and Fred Noonan being brought ashore.  Josephine Blanco. She recounts that story in detail in the longer version of this footage.

There are interviews with various people from Saipan - the son of a nurse who tended to her wounds in a hospital on Saipan, as well as others who saw or heard of her presence there.  

The hospital on Saipan where she was tended to by a Saipanese nurse

And finally, interviews with the US Marines who found her briefcase, who found the Electra parked in a hangar at Aslito airfield in 1944.  And with servicemen who saw the plane burned by US forces.

Nabers decoded the messages for commander Louis Wallace. He says he decoded one
that said "We have found AE's plane Aslito field." He was ordered to guard the plane for 24 hours
and let no one in.  Some soldiers tried to get in, and there's an interview with one of the soldiers who overheard
that argument. (Thomas E Devine). Mr. Nabers also decoded the message that announced they would
fly the plane, and finally the message where they said they were going to destroy it.  He claims
he went to the field and watched as it burned. His account is corroborated by others who witnessed
the same event.

Here's the an hour long documentary (from Richard Martini) that includes footage from the US Marines mentioned above:

New Expedition to Mili Atoll

A new expedition has been launched for an official visit to Mili Atoll.

When the tide is out "a 747 could land here" said one expert.

Sponsored by Parker Hannifin Aerospace Company, which had airplane parts on the original Electra, this expedition will gather new evidence as to whether or not Amelia Earhart's Electra came down on Mili.

Courtesy Purdue University

For those not familiar with the story....

Mike Harris visited the Marshall Islands in the 1980's while investigating the Earhart saga.  While he was there, he gathered accounts from a number of eyewitnesses who claimed to have seen her and Fred Noonan after the Electra came down.

Dick Spink, Jim Hayton, Rich Martini and Mike Harris

Bilimon Amaron said that he treated her wounds aboard a Japanese ship, and that he saw the Electra on the back of that ship.

Amaron being interviewed by Harris in the 1980s. From Harris' footage shot in 1980.

Oscar DeBrum, former recording secretary of the Marshalls said his father told him that an American pilot had been captured and he saw the Electra on the back of this ship as well.

Oscar DeBrum saw the plane on the Japanese ship. From Harris' interview in 1980.

Andrew Bryce, WWII veteran said that he was stationed on Majuro, Marshall Islands during the war and that a stevedore had told him that he had transported the Electra aboard a Japanese barge to a Japanese ship from Mili. (Andrew's brother Douglas saw the Electra on Saipan, but that's another part of the story.)

Andrew Bryce from "Earhart's Electra" spoke to a man who transported the Electra. 

Oliver Knaggs went to the Marshalls in the 1980's with a film crew and filmed islanders, including the Queen of Mili, who claimed they saw Earhart's Electra land at Mili.  Other islanders said they had heard the stories, and knew where the plane came down.

Lotan Jack and others were told to keep quiet about the female pilot/American spy the Japanese captured.
From Mike Harris' 16mm footage shot in the 1980s.

Dick Spink, a school teacher from Seattle, who works frequently in the Marshall Islands, helped organize a trip to the exact spot where the islanders said they saw her plane came down.  And as reported here and in other newspapers, the pieces that he brought back from Mili have been identified - "beyond a reasonable doubt" by NTSB forensic aviation expert Jim Hayton (who has testified before Congress) that they are likely from her Electra.

APU cover with paint that resembles the trim from the Electra. Courtesy Dick Spink.

Specifically, there are two parts. An APU cover that was painted with the same kind of red trim that the Electra was painted with for easy identification (and Hayton has looked at it under a microscope and verified the primer was of that era) and a dust shield that went in the brake assembly of only an Electra 10E.  

That dust shield is listed in the Electra's manual, and is pictured belonging between the brake and the Good Year air wheel.

Jim Hayton demonstrating how the piece fit on his Good Year air wheel, which is identical the the one on the Electra.

Aviation expert Hayton owns one of those air wheels, and has demonstrated that it fits on the same air wheel that was on her plane. In his professional opinion, the dust shield could only have come from her Electra.

So Mike Harris, intrepid explorer, the man who hired Bob Ballard to help him look for the Titanic (and Ballard went back to the location with a new team where they had searched before, and actually found the ship) has mounted a new expedition to Mili Atoll, bringing along a team of experts.

These were used to transport the Electra to the barge, according to locals. They're the same gauge as other Japanese rail cars used for sugar cane transport on Saipan and other islands. Photo courtesy Dick Spink.

Mike is leading the following team:

Jared Abraham does surveys for the US Geological Survey Department using ground penetrating radar. (He was found by pilot Paul Cooper during our Saipan expedition).  Les Kinney is a retired Federal agent who has 27 years of hard evidence that he's gathered about the government's knowledge of her disappearance, and is writing a book about his research,  Jim Hayton is an expert in forensic aviation, called to many crash sites in the Pacific Northwest where he lives, and is friends with Dick Spink, the school teacher who has made four trips to this exact location on this atoll. The team is traveling with Martin Daly, who runs tours from these islands, as well as the son of Jerry Kramer, who was Bilimon Amaron's business partner for 40 years, and has vouched for Bilimon's "unassailable honesty." Also some folks from Parker Hannifin Aerospace Industries are on the trip as well.

Circumstances prevented yours truly from accompanying them on this epic leg of the Earhart saga, but I'm rooting for them from cyberspace.

They're going to be searching for more pieces of the Electra, as there have been eyewitness accounts of more pieces of the plane, as well as eyewitness testimony of people who are related to those who saw her plane come down. 

For those concerned these might be airplane parts from "other Electras" or other airplanes - there were no recorded battles fought over these particular islands during WWII, and no other artifacts have been found from any other planes, despite four expeditions led by Dick Spink. The location of these pieces dovetails with the evidence, both local eyewitnesses and other evidence that will prove beyond a shadow of any doubt that she came down in Mili atoll in 1937.  

The rest of the story will be told soon enough, but for now, where she came down will have to be rewritten by those who care about the historical record.  Theoretical models exist of how and why the Electra should not have been able to make this same island chain where Louis Zamperini washed up ("Unbroken") after 47 days at sea (In Wotje), but theoretical models should not trump physical evidence that is backed up by eyewitness accounts.  

The fact is that it appears now that Amelia flew the Electra all the way to Mili, and landed it on a runway of rough coral. When the tide is low, one eyewitness said "You could land a 747 on this atoll." It would have been low tide when her Electra arrived, when a number of islanders saw her bring the metal plane to the ground.  Her amazing flying feat saved her life and that of her navigator Fred Noonan by making it this far, and the evidence will eventually prove what the rest of their journey was, as difficult as the evidence shows it to be.

So there now exists physical evidence of her amazing feat of skill, and exactly where her plane came down. Knock on wood, these explorers will bring back more.

Lest we forget why we're doing this research. To honor the sacrifice of these two explorers; Fred Noonan and Amelia Earhart. Courtesy Purdue University

Thanks to Parker Hannifin Corporation, Aerospace Industries, who not only had original plane parts in the Electra, but their generous sponsorship for this expedition which may actually locate exactly where the Electra came down and provide more evidence for the solution of the Earhart puzzle.

Stay tuned.