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)

National Geographic finally weighs in on Dick Spink's discovery

Finally! National Geographic on the right flight path. We spoke with the author of this article extensively back in November of 2014, and then most recently when they had the meeting he's reporting. For all intents and purposes (according to our NTSB expert) Amelia Earhart's Electra has been found... at least where it came down... and now, we'll just have to show everyone where it's buried. 
 http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/05/150528-amelia-earhart-spink-marshall-islands-aviation/

Important to note; we are not interested in who or what or why or how these events occurred.  We are not interested in talking about the theories of how she wound up on Mili Atoll.

We are passionate about finding out the truth of what happened to Amelia Earhart to honor her sacrifice for the nation.  And that is, at its core, what happened to her.  

She made an incredible landing on an atoll, not something many pilots could do.  Why was she so far off course? We don't know.  We can guess that it's because she wasn't "over" Howland when she radioed she was - in fact she was 250 miles north west of the Howland.  

But we don't know that for a fact. But we do know that she came down in Mili Atoll.

We do know she was picked up by the Japanese and transported to Saipan. That her plane and Fred Noonan went with her. 

We do know that the plane was put in a hangar on Aslito airfield. That's where it was found in June of 44. We do know that she was incarcerated and died on Saipan.

There are multiple reports about how she died. But how she died doesn't reflect on how she lived.  She lived with courage, and because of who she was - an American pilot flying in the wrong part of the Pacific - she wound up in Japanese hands.

We don't know how much she suffered, or if she suffered. We do know that people in the US knew she was there. We do know that US Marines were asked to look for her. We do know that her briefcase was found, and then her plane.

And the Electra was destroyed by US forces not long after that.  We have multiple eyewitnesses, both islanders and US Marines.  

The results of these tests will be at the end of July, early August. And that will not be the end of the story of what happened to her - it will be the beginning of the end of the story.  She deserves closure, and we are determined to help her achieve it.  Read the article below, from the National Geographic website, written by David Lande:


"One Man’s Dogged Search for Amelia Earhart"

One Man’s Dogged Search for Amelia Earhart
Teacher has spent $50K trying to prove the aviator didn’t crash into the Pacific -- and instead landed on a tiny island.

Picture of Amelia Earhart standing in front of the Lockheed Electra plane

Internationally famous as a trouser-clad, tousle-haired, female flier, Amelia Earhart stands in front of the Lockheed Electra she hoped to fly around the world. With only 7,000 miles to go on the 29,000-mile journey, she and navigator Fred Noonan took off from Lae, New Guinea, on July 2, 1937, and disappeared over a vast stretch of the Pacific Ocean. 
PHOTOGRAPH BY SSPL, GETTY

By David Lande, National Geographic 
PUBLISHED MAY 28, 2015
5
At a gathering of researchers near Seattle, a piece of Amelia Earhart’s plane is reverently passed hand-to-hand around a conference table. The authenticity of the artifact is undisputed—a rarity in the contentious world of Earhart aficionados. It was removed from Earhart’s Lockheed Electra during a repair job in the spring of 1937, and a forward-thinking mechanic rescued it from a trash bin. Just a few months later, Earhart and her Electra would be lost in an attempted round-the-world flight.


What happened to Amelia Earhart? Depends on whom you ask. Some say it’s obvious: She ran out of gas over a vast stretch of the Pacific, splashed into the water, and vanished. Others say she landed and eventually died on an island now called Nikumaroro, some 350 miles (563 kilometers) south of her intended refueling stop on Howland Island.

But a 53-year-old high school science teacher from Washington State named Dick Spink believes a different theory: Her plane set down in the Marshall Islands, far off course, on a tiny atoll named Mili.

Picture of a scrap of metal from the Lockheed Electra plane

After sustaining heavy damage in a failed takeoff attempt from Hawaii, Earhart’s Lockheed was repaired in California in the spring of 1937. A mechanic saved this original section of aluminum skin from the airplane’s horizontal stabilizer. 
(Photo by Richard Martini)

“The world needs to know this,” Spink says. “I heard a consistent story from too many people in the Marshalls to dismiss it. They say, ‘She landed at Mili. Our uncles and aunts, our parents, and our grandparents know she landed here.’ ”

The Marshallese accounts were so convincing that Spink has spent $50,000 of his own money searching for the spot where Earhart landed. He contends that the islanders’ stories will be borne out by scientific proof.

Which is why these eight researchers—including engineers, metallurgists, and aircraft technicians—are gathered around a conference table and joined via teleconference by two scientists from Alcoa, original supplier of the aluminum used in Earhart’s plane.

After examining the authentic piece, the group passes around a half-dozen other parts—jagged, weathered, and corroded aluminum sealed in bags like evidence from a crime scene. Some are still encrusted with sand and bits of coral from the Marshalls, where they were found recently. One still has a hint of reddish paint—perhaps a faded match to the reddish-orange trim of Earhart’s plane.

Picture of Mili Atoll in the Marshall Islands
Some researchers believe crescent-shaped Mili Atoll in the Marshall Islands is where Amelia Earhart landed in desperation after failing to locate her intended fuel stop at Howland Island, some 800 miles to the southeast. 


Putting the pieces together

Dick Spink isn’t the originator of the Marshall Islands theory. It first came to global attention during the 1960s with the publication of Paul Briand’s book Daughter of the Sky, as well as CBS correspondent Fred Goerner’s The Search for Amelia Earhart. (The fascination with Earhart continues; a crew trying to fly a solar-powered plane around the world is planning to embark on what it calls the “Earhart leg” of its trip, across the unforgiving Pacific.)

Goerner’s book—a bible of sorts to many Marshall Islands believers—argues that Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan were taken prisoner by the Japanese after landing in the Marshalls and transported by ship to Saipan, where they died in captivity.

Spink counts himself among Goerner’s disciples, but he didn’t come to faith by reading his book. In fact, he hadn’t read anything about Earhart when he first traveled to the Marshall Islands for a sideline business venture. “I just assumed everyone believed that she disappeared when she sank in the ocean,” he says.

Then, three years ago, Spink was having dinner with Marshallese friends when he asked an innocent question: “Didn’t Amelia Earhart disappear in this part of the world?” A local man answered: “Yes, she landed on our island, and my uncle watched her for two days.”

Dick Spink, Jim Hayton, Rich Martini, Mike Harris

Spink’s first reaction was to laugh, but he stopped abruptly when he realized the man wasn’t joking. After that, wherever he traveled in the Marshalls, he kept hearing the same story. “So many people said the same thing,” he says. “It’s become part of Marshallese history and culture.”

What began as serendipity became a pursuit for Spink. He interviewed dozens of Marshallese natives, pressing for specifics until he pinpointed a stretch of rough coral shore where two fishermen had claimed they saw Earhart land. Her plane, losing parts as it bounced over the coral, was later dragged to a Japanese transport ship.

Spink has never solicited financial help for his pursuits. But through connections with a company called Parker Aerospace, his quest received a major boost. This year Parker funded an expedition that brought sophisticated equipment to bear on the search area in the Marshalls.

Parker manufactured fittings for the fuel systems of nearly all aircraft made in the 1920s and 30s, including Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Louis and Earhart’s Electra.

Jon Jeffery, a Parker representative who accompanied Spink on the January expedition, says, “When we found that our company had made parts for Earhart’s Electra, that got Parker management excited, and they made the decision to invest in the project.”

Photo: Purdue University

Too Many Miles, Too Little Fuel?
Others haven’t been so supportive. Many Earhart enthusiasts dismiss the Marshalls theory as outlandish. Elgen Long, a retired pilot who spent decades researching Earhart’s disappearance, believes in the splashed-and-sank theory.

“The plane would’ve had to float a long way” to reach the Marshall Islands, quips Long. For him, the answer to the mystery rests under 17,000 feet of ocean.

(BLOG AUTHOR NOTE: Elgen Long told me he'd be "glad if it's true" when I spoke to him just prior to flying up to meet Dick Spink and to examine the piece.  What Elgen Long said, along with the man who owns the original piece of the Electra said, was that the expedition to Nikumaroro to find her plane was "not real." (They both used stronger language, but I'd prefer to let them speak for themselves on the topic. )


Fred Patterson, a World Airways pilot for 25 years who also owned two Electras, shares Long’s opinion. “There’s just no way she made it to the Marshall Islands,” he says. “I’ve done some long-range flying in that airplane myself, and I know exactly what it burns per hour.”

Patterson, Long, and many others in their camp argue that radio transmissions place Earhart near her intended destination of Howland Island when she uttered “gas is running low.” The distance from Howland to Mili Atoll is 800 miles—nearly four and a half hours away at the Electra’s cruising speed.

The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) argues that Earhart landed on Nikumaroro Island, closer to Howland. (For more on this theory, see http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/11/141104-amelia-earhart-forensic-photo-spectral-imaging-analysis/)

Both Alcoa and Parker are analyzing the pieces recovered from the Marshall Islands to determine whether the metal and paint match Earhart’s plane.

For his part, Spink remains confident that he’s on the right path—guided, it seems, by the ill-fated aviatrix herself.


“So many weird things have happened,” he says. “I feel like the key to the Earhart mystery has just been handed to me. It’s kind of creepy, almost as if Amelia is saying, ‘Here, go with this.’ ”

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:

Mike Harris on Mili with Pix of his team

Here's the same report, but with photographs of Mike and the team, including Les Kinney, federal investigator with 27 years of AE research, Jim Hayton, forensic aviation expert who has testified before Congress and the NTSB, Dick Spink, school teacher extraordinaire who found the original pieces of the Electra, folks from Parker Aerospace, Jared Abrahams survey expert, Jerry Kramer former business partner of the Marshall's native who treated Earhart aboard a Japanese ship after recovering her plane, and Jerry's son...  not in that order...

American group looks for Amelia Earhart clues on remote Marshalls’ atoll

• 
• 

Category: Palau/Pacific News

26 Jan 2015

By Giff Johnson - For Variety

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MAJURO — A group that claims it discovered parts from Amelia Earhart’s plane on a remote atoll in the Marshall Islands last year returned this weekend to search for additional clues they hope will shed light on a mystery that has baffled the world since the famous pilot was lost in 1937.

The whereabouts of Earhart’s twin-engine Lockheed Electra that was lost during a trans-Pacific flight nearly 80 years ago has never been discovered. A group known as Amelia Research, Inc. led visits to Mili Atoll last year that discovered a small aluminum cover plate and a circular metal dust cover from a landing-gear wheel assembly that experts say is from Earhart’s plane.

But The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery or TIGHAR has a competing theory, saying it has found proof that Earhart went down at Nikumaroro Atoll in the central Pacific nation of Kiribati that neighbors the Marshall Islands. TIGHAR leader Ric Gillespie plans to take another team to Nikumaroro — about 400 miles southeast of Howland Island — later this year.

Others also discount the find in the Marshall Islands, saying Earhart’s plane didn’t have enough fuel to get there. But two aircraft experts recently said the plane parts found on Mili Atoll are from Earhart’s plane. Mili was a Japanese military base in the build up to World War II, one of half a dozen throughout the Marshall Islands.

MARSHALL ISLANDS PRESIDENT CHRISTOPHER LOEAK, CENTER, RECEIVING A GIFT FROM AMELIA RESEARCH INC. TEAM LEADER MIKE HARRIS, MET WITH THE SEARCH GROUP THAT IS ON REMOTE MILI ATOLL FOR A WEEK TO SEARCH FOR MORE CLUES ABOUT THE DISAPPEARANCE OF EARHART’S PLANE. MARSHALL ISLANDS PRESIDENT’S OFFICE PHOTO

Marshall Islands President Christopher Loeak also believes Earhart’s plane crash-landed in Mili. “Generations of Marshallese people have known since 1937 that the famous fliers didn’t just disappear in the ocean, as history would want us to believe,” Loeak said in a statement issued after meeting the Earhart search group Friday. Marshall Islanders know that the plane landed “on a small atoll in the Marshall Islands and (Earhart and Noonan) survived.”

Loeak invited the team to visit Mili and has assigned government Historic Preservation Office staff to assist the investigation.

Cleveland, Ohio-based Parker Aerospace is sponsoring the latest Earhart search foray to Mili Atoll. The group left Sunday morning for Mili and expects to be there for about a week.

“We brought more sophisticated equipment to find other parts (of Earhart’s plane),” said Jon Jeffery, director of Technology and Business Development at Parker Aerospace. He hopes they will discover a part with a serial number or others that will offer conclusive evidence it was Earhart’s aircraft that landed in Mili.

MEMBERS OF THE AMELIA EARHART SEARCH TEAM BOARD A SPEED BOAT TO TRANSPORT THEM TO A LARGER VESSEL FOR AN OVERNIGHT VOYAGE FROM MAJURO TO MILI ATOLL IN THE MARSHALL ISLANDS THIS PAST WEEKEND. PHOTO BY HILARY HOSIA

A new wrinkle in the search for Earhart evidence in the Marshall Islands involves nearby Jaluit Atoll, the headquarters for Japan’s administration of the Marshall Islands from World War I to the end of World War II.

“There is an underground hospital built by the Japanese on Jaluit,” Jeffery said. Elder Marshall Islands say they saw Earhart’s plane go down on a small island in Mili Atoll, and others report seeing her in Jaluit. “Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan were in this hospital after they crashed,” he said. “There might be some evidence there.”

Jeffery said his brother James is friends with people in the group searching Mili Atoll for clues to Earhart’s disappearance and last year approached Jeffery about his company sponsoring the latest visit.

“My CEO approved the money to sponsor the visit,” he said.

Public Talk about the interviews and conclusions made of the Earhart on Saipan research

Here in its unadulterated form (meaning there's an hour and change of footage) is the talk we gave at the American Pavilion on Saipan, sponsored by the NMI Humanities Council.


Apologies for any sound or picture issues, we just had the one camera set up for the shoot.  Paul Cooper on the left, Rich Martini in the middle, and Mike Harris on the right.  Enjoy!

More interviews, some radio time, gathering footage continues

Hello readers of the Earhart on Saipan blog!

We did an interview with Catherine Rosario Perry today, on Saipan's 99.5 FM "Your Humanities Half Hour."  Rich Martini handled the history and journey of ARA, and how we came to be on the island, and why we felt it was worth pursuing the eyewitness reports that Amelia and Fred Noonan were seen many times by many people on the island.

We'll post a link as soon as it becomes available.

Catherine R Perry in action
"Your Humanities Half Hour" on 99.5

Rich discussed how he and Mike Harris had followed roughly the same path back in the 80's with regard to finding eyewitnesses who could tell their story about Saipan.  Mike filmed a number of interviews back then, and Rich pursued the Earhart story as a feature film.  When he wound up working on "Amelia" he decided to focus his efforts on the documentary version of the story, and included a number of interviews he had done with US Marines who claimed to find the Electra during WWII parked on Aslito airfield.

Rich with witness Delores Takamane across from the old jail

As Rich pointed out, he wasn't pursuing the "why" she wound up on Saipan, or even the "how" she wound up there.  He just zeroed in on eyewitness reports to see if they could be corroborated, either by other eyewitnesses, or people who could vouch for their witness' veracity.  And he said that he's found 17 new eyewitnesses that have never been recorded before on Saipan who claim they saw Amelia and Fred Noonan there after she disappeared.

Paul Cooper and Mike Harris speaking about the search
Will post the video of this talk in a few days

We're continuing our interviews with people, but back stateside.  As reported recently, Paul Cooper met a fellow who said he knew a gentleman in Texas who claimed he's a retired CIA employee, and that he witnessed the destruction of the airplane on Aslito field.  We're seeking an interview with him, who would be our seventh Marine to claim to seeing the Electra there (not including the ones who spoke to Tom Devine and Mike Campbell in their book).  This will be the 7th Marine that we have on camera telling his story.

Newsman Fred Goerner wrote "Searching for Earhart"
and visited Saipan three times in his research

Fred interviewed this woman in 1960.. but
no one bothered to put her on film. We will.

We are also speaking with the very first eyewitness to come forward, a Saipan native who lives in the US.  This woman has never been put on camera before, and so we felt it important to do so, and let her tell her story herself.

As with much reporting about Amelia Earhart and this saga - it all depends on the author's point of view, or preconceived idea, or conclusions about what really happened.  However, by way of a documentary, the audience is allowed to think for themselves, to hear the testimony themselves, and to make up their own minds whether they consider it to be false, manipulated, or too coincidental to be anything but true.  That's why the amount of eyewitnesses keeps growing.

This author, Oliver Knaggs, interviewed a number of people on camera for his book

We've also been able to track down the footage taken during a trip to Mili in the 1980's which will hopefully show those native islanders recounting their own stories about what did or didn't happen.  They claim they saw the Electra land there on the atoll in 1937, and the female and male who emerged from the plane were arrested by the Japanese and the plane was taken away by a Japanese barge.  We have testimony about where the plane went next, by other eyewitnesses.  And eventually those eyewitnesses all agree on the point that this female pilot and the man traveling with her, were taken to Saipan and incarcerated for being spies.

Hard to find book, however, Knaggs interviews some of
the same people who Mike Harris interviewed in 1983

Whether they were spies or not is subject to conjecture.  We know they were arrested as spies, because eyewitnesses were told by Japanese soldiers not to tell anyone what they'd see, or about the "American spies" upon fear of death.  We know that a Navy mechanic claimed to install Fairchild "Aerial Surveillance cameras (spy cameras) into her plane in Burbank.  We know that if she had been caught by the Japanese spying on them it would have been considered an act of war - as in 1937, when a spy was caught, it was considered an act of war.

But again, we aren't focusing on the why.  Just the what. As in "What happened?"

Lest we forget who we're talking about. American hero. Never thanked for her sacrifice to country.

Stay tuned...

CNMI Culture Center/Earhart Exhibit moves forward, along with more eyewitnesses, "In Veritas Libertas"

Captain Cooper met with the new Governor Eloy Inos and Lt. Governor Jude Hofschneider regarding the CNMI Cultural Center/Earhart Exhibit, moving the ball forward.

Lt. Gov Hofschneider, ARA's Paul Cooper & Gov Eloy Inos.
Photo by Robert Rustin

We'd like to thank the Governor for meeting with us, and helping steer us in the right direction!

Meanwhile, new eyewitnesses have come forward.

Estella Cabrera holding a picture of her family.
photo by Chris Neltner

We got a call from Estella Cabrera, with an amazing story of her own involvement with the Earhart on Saipan story.  She brought along some photographs of her family, and told us her story on camera for the first time.  We are in the process of speaking with corroborating witnesses who have a similar or nearly the same story.  But we can't thank her enough for coming forward to help us.

Captain Cooper with the Cabrera family. Photo Chris Neltner

Then we spoke with Mr. V Santos.  Mr. Santos saw that we mentioned the testimony of Jack Salas, 82, who says that when he was 12, he was sitting with his brother and saw Amelia on the back of a Japanese truck.  There were two other prisoners on that truck - both wearing khaki pants, but shirtless.  Mr. Salas saw the "blond" woman with her arms tied behind her back and was startled to see his first caucasion person every - who happened to be a woman in khaki pants and shirts.

Mr. Santos contacted us to let us know he was also there in Chalan Kanoa and also saw Amelia on the back of the truck with two shirtless prisoners. (We did not publish the part of the two other prisoners on the website - and when he claimed he saw her with two other prisoners, that confirms beyond a shadow of a doubt that he saw the same event ON THE SAME DAY in May of 1944.)

David M Sablan, Vincente Santos and Paul Cooper. Photo by Robert Rustin

Mr. Santos, former teacher, a well respected member of the community, had a prominent role as member
of the negotiating team that negotiated the political status of the CNMI

Mr. Santos read about the eyewitness from Chalan Kanoa, and because he also witnessed the same event, felt compelled to tell us about it.  Mr. Santos told us about the day when he came down from his family ranch into Chalan Kanoa (housing area where the executives of the sugar mill lived) to sell papaya to the Japanese/Okiinawans living there.  On that date he "saw two or three Europeans on the back of the truck blind-folded and hand-cuffed with two Japanese military guards standing at the back of the victims."  Mr. Santos followed the truck part of the way as it was being driven slowly as if they were showing off the "captives" to the residents of Chalan Kanoa and finally ended up in the school campus.

Lotan Jack's story as told to Mike Harris in 1983

The "three Europeans" were Amelia Earhart, and two American pilots who had been shot down recently just prior to the invasion in June of 1944.  These two pilots must have been pretty startled to see Amelia as a prisoner traveling with them.

Either way, it confirms Jack Salas' story.  Thank you very much Mr. Santos!!!

Manny Muna from Mike Harris' documentary

The story continues....

Oscar DeBrum from Mike Harris' 1983 footage

And like most of the unusual events we've experienced on Saipan, a gentleman in a local establishment struck up a conversation with a member of our team recently.  He recalled a story told to him by a veteran of Saipan told him back in the States, which corroborates what other US Marines have told us; that Earhart's Electra was found on Saipan by US Marines and destroyed there. We're finding out whether this veteran will tell us his story on camera.  Fingers crossed, as he would add yet another voice to the chorus of those who saw or heard about Earhart's plane being found and destroyed on Saipan.

Godfather's Bar & Grill - where most everyone on Saipan winds up
at some point in the evening.  And a good source of intel!

There's an old Latin saying that we at Aircraft Recovery Associates take to heart: In Veritas; Libertas. 

It's the same phrase that is emblazoned on the wall of the entrance to the CIA: "The Truth Will Set You Free."  We feel that this search for the truth on Saipan, while difficult and taxing, will be ultimately rewarding for everyone involved.  People from across the globe who've never been to Saipan will go there to see these same sights, to experience the same things so many experienced in one of the hardest fought battles in World War II.  The thousands of tourists who come every day from Japan, China, Korea and Russia will get a chance to hear the history of Saipan from a fresh perspective. They will also get to experience a part of the US they weren't aware of - despite being so far from our shores, it's just like Hawaii - the temperature remains around 82 year round, golf courses abound... Something tourists from Asia experience daily.

Aslito airfield from Jerry Facey's balcony. Thanks Jerry!

We are thankful for all the help the Saipanese people have given us in our quest. 

Everyone we interviewed, we told the same thing; we were looking for two things.  One is the location of the plane, which we would not take from the island if indeed we found it; the Electra belongs to the history and story of Saipan.  Whatever we find on Saipan will stay on Saipan (unless borrowed for a traveling exhibition of course).  But more importantly, we wanted to hear their stories of what it was like on Saipan prior to the war firsthand, what the experience was like for the families who survived the war, and finally, whether or not they'd ever met or heard anyone claiming that Amelia Earhart was on the island.

Saipan site of the wreck of Magellan's Concepcion -
another buried treasure but they left a chest of gold!

What we found is that by asking the Chomorro people to tell us their stories, they were able to reconnect with the emotions and feelings from that era.  Sometimes it would be to wipe away a tear for the horrors that they witnessed, for the loss of the loved ones.  Sometimes it would be honor their mother and father and to repeat the stories they'd heard as children about the difficulties they experienced.  These stories are unique to Saipan and belong to history, and as such should become part of the CNMI (Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas) cultural center.  These stories are living history and should be preserved as such as much as the story of Earhart's journey to Saipan, her and Fred Noonan's incarceration there, their deaths, and the discovery and destruction of the Electra.  These events have never been explored in depth, and deserve to be.

Mike Harris and Rich Martini at the old church -
site where Marine Robert Wallack found Earhart's briefcase

These are new stories about Amelia Earhart, stories that have never been published before, stories that are corroborated by other details, are part of history.  In the case of one piece of testimony, an avowed skeptic when we first arrived learned from testimony that there was a distant relative who claimed to have seen both Earhart and her Electra on Saipan. This person had to reconsider their earlier skepticism, as the relative was beyond reproach.

Photographer Robert Rustin. Thank you Robert!

This gentleman's mother was a nurse in Saipan's hospital prior to the War -
She told her son the story of a woman pilot and her navigator who were
brought into the hospital in 1937

The hunt continues.  We are continuing the search, and compiling the results.  We will be presenting them as soon as we can.

New eyewitness testimony suggests Amelia Earhart
spent up to 7 years incarcerated here before being executed
perhaps weeks or even days prior to the American invasion. 

In the meantime, thanks to all the people of Saipan who went out of their ways to make us feel at home, to work tirelessly on our behalf, to encourage us to keep us the hard but rewarding work of finding the truth of this story.

Another day comes to a close...

Stay tuned...

The Airfield, The 2nd Eyewitness, The One who started it all...

Greetings from the page dedicated to finding the truth about whether or not Amelia Earhart and her Electra were ever on Saipan...

Digging on the airfield.
Note the Japanese bunker in background

Digging has continued at Alsito Airfield.  It took us a long time, and we jumped through all the hoops, but Captain Cooper was able to put shovel to dirt so to speak, in an attempt to dig up one piece of an airplane.

Digging at Alsito airfield. Captain Cooper and Jerry Facey assisting. Photo by Robert Rustin

It's a long shot to be sure.  But the logic goes like this; we have a number of people who claim they saw Amelia Earhart incarcerated on Saipan.  New eyewitness testimony, never before published, filmed live on Saipan with the eyewitnesses themselves.  We have old eyewitness testimony, shot by filmmaker Mike Harris when he was here in the 1980's at the start of this story.  We have eyewitness testimony, some on camera, some on paper of US soldiers who claim they saw Earhart's Electra on Aslito airfield.  We have new eyewitnesses to that effect, that have never been published or interviewed before.

Hydraulic Fluid Level Indicator

What they claimed was fairly simple, if not puzzling.  They claim they found her plane intact in a hangar on the field on or about June 19th, 1944. They claim the plane was guarded by US Marines, and then after a couple of weeks, the Electra was flown around the airfield, near Naftan point.  Then they further claim that the plane was taken out on the runway, covered with gas, and torched by US forces. We have various eyewitnesses to this event, two on camera who tell their story from two different points of view, and a number of others in print who describe watching the plane burn.  We aren't looking for the why of these events, even though we are aware how startling they are.  We are focused on "then what?"

So what happened to the plane after it burned?

And does aluminum burn along with other plane parts?

Electra in a museum in Tucson, Arizona

And how to differentiate from the many other planes that were destroyed on Aslito airfield, including Japanese zeroes (made from an aluminum alloy) and the many US planes that burned or crashed there?

Our premise is this; the Electra was made of an unusual alloy of aluminum.  Each part of the plane was identified, or stamped, and x-rayed in Burbank after it was repaired from her first mission.  If there is a plane part to be found, it would not be rusted, it would not be filled with moss (as the lesser aluminum alloy of Zeroes are) and it would be identifiable by the part number stamped on it or from its x-ray image.

Under the Electra during her Last Flight

We're only looking for one piece.

However, the airfield is large - and what we need to do is use various different pieces of equipment that can differentiate between ferrous material and aluminum. We are focusing on areas where eyewitnesses claim they saw the plane burned. By that process of elimination we are hoping to find one piece of the Electra.

Again, we aren't making up the story that the plane burned at Aslito. We are following the eyewitness reports of over a dozen US Marines who claim to have seen it there, seen it fly, or seen it burned.  Its possible that in the subsequent years, every piece of the plane was dug up and used as scrap metal.  It's possible that the plane was removed entirely from the field.  But that's not likely - as we know it was destroyed on the runway, and the standard operating procedure is still the same for burning planes - to push it off the runway and bury it.

Double rivets on the engine. The propellers were unique as well.

Needless to say there's a number of options for where the plane is buried.  And we're going through them one by one.

Rivets on a piece of aluminum from a plane found near the field

On the eyewitness front, we have a new eyewitness who corroborates the story of Jack Salas, who claims that in 1944 he saw the American woman flyer in the back of a Japanese army truck, her arms bound and wearing a black bandana.  This new witness has come forward only because of our reporting what Jack Salas said - because he also was there in Chalan Kanoa and saw the very same truck, identifying her as Amelia Earhart.  He too said it appeared as if the Japanese were showing their prisoners off to the islanders for some reason.  He too said it was a big event to see the first caucasian woman ever - dressed not like a woman, but like a man.  Not something ever seen on Saipan, not something anyone might forget, despite the years since seeing her on that truck.

Jack Salas's story  of seeing Earhart for 30 minutes on the back of a truck
corroborated by another Saipanese islander yesterday

Also on the eyewitness front, we've been granted an interview with the woman who was the very first person to report seeing Amelia Earhart on Saipan.  We are going to interview her in her home in a couple of weeks, and she has more of her story to impart.  Merely from a historic perspective, no one has taken the time to put this woman on camera to hear her story first hand.  And it's been 70 years since she first told it.  Don't you think its about time to hear her in her own words?

We do.

Thanks for tuning in....