Expedition to Mili hits the airwaves

The first "official" report.  Note, this is Mike Harris' expedition - he found the sponsor, assembled the team, is shooting the footage.  They're out there during a "King Tide" so hopefully waters have receded to help their search. But if you read the other posts below, you'll find why Mike is on Mili with this team.

Search for Earhart plane on remote Marshalls atoll

15 hours ago

.

View photo

US aviator Amelia Earhart pictured in front of her plane in the 1930s (AFP Photo/)

A search is under way on a remote atoll in the Marshall Islands aimed at solving the mysterious disappearance of aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart.

A group of researchers travelled Sunday to Mili Atoll where a small aluminium cover plate and part of a landing-gear wheel assembly, believed to be from Earhart's plane, were found last year.

"We brought more sophisticated equipment to find other parts," said Jon Jeffery, director of technology and business development at United States-based Parker Aerospace, which is sponsoring the search.

Earhart, the first woman to fly across the Atlantic solo, disappeared in 1937 with navigator Fred Noonan when attempting to circumnavigate the world in a twin-engine Lockheed Electra aircraft.

Marshall Islanders have long claimed Earhart crashed on an atoll and a group known as Amelia Research, Inc. found the aircraft parts last year.

"Generations of Marshallese people have known since 1937 that the famous fliers didn't just disappear in the ocean," Marshall Islands President Christopher Loeak said.

The aircraft landed "on a small atoll in the Marshall Islands and (Earhart and Noonan) survived", he added.

The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery has dismissed the Marshalls theory. It believes Earhart went down at Nikumaroro Atoll in the central Pacific nation of Kiribati near the Marshall Islands.

A new line of investigation in the search for Earhart evidence in the Marshall Islands involves Jaluit Atoll near Mili. It was 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.

"Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan were in this hospital after they crashed," he said. "There might be some evidence there."

Marshall Islanders have claimed they saw Earhart's plane go down on a small island in Mili Atoll, and others reported seeing her in Jaluit.

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. 

Exciting News from the front lines of the Search!

Hot off the presses, and about to hit the street:

Just back from Seattle where we interviewed Dick Spink and Jim Hayton.

Dick Spink, Jim Hayton, Rich Martini, Mike Harris

You may not have heard of them before, but you're going to be hearing about them in the future. They're about to become household names.

Here's the news story from the KC star: 

What the story does not include - I have eyewitness reports of every moment from the point that plane came down to when it was found by US Marines in Saipan in June of 1944.

Dick is a school teacher, a well respected member of his community who happens to design boats for countries worldwide, who use his unique designs as river and ferry boats.  He's spent a lot of time in the Marshall islands and considers his friends there family. He was intrigued when they started telling him the stories of seeing Earhart's plane come down on a nearby atoll in 1937.

Jim Hayton is an aviation expert who has testified before Congress and the NTSB about plane crashes.  

Having gone to the University of Chicago, his journey and path led him into aviation where he is one expert they consult when there's an accident in the Pacific Northwest.  He also is a fan of the Electra, and purchased three Goodyear Airwheel that fit the Electra way back when he was a kid.  Over the years, he used two on other planes, but still owns one.  The same airwheel as was on Amelia's Electra.

Dick heard the rumors that Earhart had come down in Mili Atoll, a place that he's been to before, and could lead an expedition to.  He went out with his camera, and investigated what he'd heard and knew about Earhart coming down in Mili.
  

The key difference in Dick's expedition, with respect to Oliver Knagg's trip to Mili in 1983 and Vincent Loomis' trip in 1985 is that Dick went to where the two fishermen actually said they saw her plane come down.

For those familiar with the story - Vincent Loomis book "The Final Story" documents his trip to these islands in 1985 to interview those who saw the plane come down.  And Oliver Knaggs, a journalist from South Africa, went out in 1983 and wrote "Her Last Flight" - both recounting the same stories of locals who claim they saw her plane come down.  They interviewed some of the same people, and footage of their testimony resides in a film vault in Florida.

In "Final Story" Loomis demonstrates how evidence shows she had more fuel on her plane than she actually knew. Evidence shows that on three occassions she "accidentally" flew 200 miles to the north of where she was supposed to go - and her radioman Harry Manning said it was "BECAUSE SHE HAD A TENDENCY TO DRIFT WHILE SHE WAS FLYING THE PLANE."  He mentioned how she had drifted "200 miles" to the north when he flew on the Electra with her. (He was supposed to be on her world flight, but got off after her crash in Hawaii.)  Harry Manning.  If the Electra drifted 200 miles North, she would have enough fuel to make it to the Marshalls.  But the important detail is THAT MANY PEOPLE SAW HER COME DOWN, MANY SAW HER AND THE PLANE AFTER SHE DISAPPEARED.

But Dick followed up on these stories recently, because he knows and loves the people of the Marshalls, and with the help of a local "chief" or "king" of the islands, went out and found a small piece of a plane and brought it back to Seattle to his friend Jim Hayton, the aviation expert.  

And Jim said that it looked like a piece from her plane, could be part of an Electra - but while looking over Dick's footage discovered something that looked more promising.  

The Good Year Airwheel from the Electra

So Dick went back and recovered that piece Jim saw - which Jim identified immediately as being a dust shield that came from between the brake unit and the wheel itself of the Electra.  The size is correct, and as he put it "could only have come from an Electra built identically to her plane." HE RECOGNIZED THE PIECE FROM THE PHOTOGRAPH AND KNEW EXACTLY WHAT IT WAS.

He also explained to me: "The reason it is made of aluminum instead of steel, is that, since it is attached to the magnesium wheel, a steel dust shield would instantly corrode the wheel."

There were no other planes on this island, and no air battles fought overhead or nearby.  So it's the only pieces from an airplane that they could find during their search.

I had the opportunity to access an Electra 10E manual where the piece is clearly identified - as the piece that Jim said that it was. He was correct about the manufacture of the airwheel, and the identity of the piece, both of which are in the manual for the Electra.

Also I got to examine a piece of the actual Electra, that had been retrieved from the plane before it left.  And to my untrained eye, the paint from the original piece Dick found, and the paint from the actual plane looks mighty similar.  Forensic spectrometry could solve that riddle. (The owner of the piece was emphatic in the disbelief she landed in Mili, and is in no way associated with my search for the Electra.  A respected pilot, I won't mention their name with regard to any part of this story, as per their request.)

I'm not posting photos of their find until after they're posted in the media and papers, and I'll leave that to them to license their work in any way they see fit.  Both Dick and Jim are not in the Earhart discovery game, are not treasure hunters, but are experts in their respective fields.  Dick knows a lot about the islands where these parts were found, and Jim knows alot about where on an Electra they would go. 

So.  Where does that leave us?

First, I know there was a "piece of the Electra found" last week - which is reportedly, according to forensic testimony, a piece of a PBY plane that was found on Nikaumaroro and identified 22 years ago by Elgen Long (who spoke with National Geographic and Can Imaging Analysis Solve Mystery of Amelia Earhart's Disappearance?) - that the piece matches a PBY plane exactly.  I'm in awe of those folks' ability to command media attention at every swing of the bat, and wish the same for Dick and Jim, as they've gone a long way and have a great story to tell.)

But this discovery, if verified, will be the linchpin to the story on these pages - that is repeated in the footage to the right of this page, with eyewitness testimony from those who saw her after she came down, saw her incarcerated, saw the plane.

(IT'S 36 MINUTES LONG)

Watch that footage to see that there are eyewitnesses to her coming down in Mili, eyewitnesses to her plane being picked up by a barge and taken to a Japanese ship, eyewitnesses who saw the plane aboard the ship, eyewitnesses who saw her and Fred aboard that ship, eyewitnesses who saw the ship follow a route to Japan.  (Saipan had been part of Japan since 1914, and for purposes of clarity, and common sense, it should be referred to as such, since the Japanese considered it home territory, the way we considered Pearl Harbor home territory. Their Pacific military headquarters were located there as well.)

Her plane was found by US forces on this airfield in June of 1944.  In the foreground is a plane that was burned, but the wings were not destroyted.

At least two eyewitnesses saw Amelia and Fred come ashore in Saipan in 1937, other eyewitnesses saw her on the island from that point forward, and according to the testimony we recently got from eyewitnesses in Saipan, more than one person saw her up until 1944 when the US invaded. 

Fred Noonan's piercing blue eyes were identified by people who saw him aboard a Japanese ship who had never seen the color before.  Amelia and Fred were wounded, they were treated and taken to Japan (Saipan) where the were incarcerated, according to numerous eyewitnesses. (See the footage to the right for some of their accounts).

Eyewitnesses saw the plane in a hangar at the airfield on Saipan before the war, and then during the invasion by the Americans, US Marines reported finding the plane in a hangar in June of 44.  Many people saw it, many we've spoken to and filmed - enough that it doesn't make a lick of sense how or why they would make something like this up.  After all, US Marines aren't prone to making stuff up.  And if they were, we would have heard stories of her on Okinawa, Tawara, or other islands they also fought and died for.

And these US Marines also saw it fly on Saipan in June of 44. 

So that could only mean that her plane had been repaired in the ensuing seven years, and also would account for why the planes that attacked Pearl Harbor had knock off Electra (Pratt & Witney) engines.  And US Marines reported seeing the plane not only at the airfield, but also watched as it was destroyed by US forces for reasons beyond my capacity to understand, or desire to know.

Fred was reportedly executed early on, Amelia was reportedly executed later on.  There were more than one location where islanders claim she was buried - we have a couple of accounts of her death, one who claims she saw her shot, another who claims her father, brother in law of the police chief at that time period, ordered her beheading.  And we have two reports that claim the story of her cremation.  We also have the crematorium on camera.  

Was she buried or cremated?  Again, it's not a piece of the story that's worth pursuing or pinning down.  It's important that Amelia be remembered not for how she died, but for how she lived.  

She died because she was an American. For that alone she deserves to be honored.

So.  These exciting developments have not gone unnoticed by the national media, and from what I understand, will soon, within hours, or days become part of the official revision of this story. 

And we have Dick Spink the school teacher, and Jim Hayton the aviation expert to thank for supplying this amazing, fantastic piece to this overall puzzle.  Thank you!

Stay tuned.

Eyewitnesses

 The latest clips from eyewitnesses who saw Earhart on Saipan, or heard from someone who did.

Latest piece of the electra found?

It's funny how Discovery seems to be a spokesperson for these expeditions to Nikamauroro.  Why is it that only Rosella Lorenzi is the only writer credited with these stories?

And this latest discovery?

That very piece they're claiming was from the Electra was discounted by Electra expert Elgen Long 22 years ago:

http://articles.latimes.com/1992-03-30/news/vw-278_1_amelia-earhart

March 30th, 1992,

"Long recruited a formidable panel of volunteers: a professor of metals engineering; a structures engineer for Navy patrol aircraft; the owner of two Lockheed 10 airplanes, and the assistant foreman, now retired, of the Lockheed fuselage shop at the time Earhart's plane was built.

The group pored over photographs of the piece. They examined blueprints and engineering orders for repairs to the airplane's underside needed after a takeoff accident ended an earlier Earhart attempt to fly around the world. And the team visited a 1936 Lockheed 10B at Oakland's Western Aerospace Museum.
The associates placed the template over the starboard belly of the airplane. They slid the piece over all other exterior sections of the airplane. Just in case.

"We decided the fragment could have come from anywhere . . . anywhere but Amelia Earhart's airplane," Long says.

The latest article asks for funding for the eleventh expedition.


Actually just read the last paragraph of the DiscoveryNew.com article. “Funding is being sought, in part, from individuals who will make a substantial contribution in return for a place on the expedition team,” Gillespie said." 

22 years ago, this piece of the plane was definitely said "not to be from the Electra." 

Experts were consulted, and for the past 24 years (since it was found) it was considered just another piece of junk. 

Question is - where's the rest of the plane? So we're to believe that the plane crashed - but then sank - where he wants to get people to fund his expedition to find it. So this one piece either fell on its way into the water - or magically jumped up onto land.

He's had TEN EXPEDITIONS to this island. ABC funded a couple - one guy sued him over the last one. I wish it was a piece from her plane. Alas, it would mean that over 200 islanders and over a dozen US Marines (that I have on film) were lying. That they didn't see her plane, didn't see her incarcerated on Saipan. That she wasn't executed by the Japanese for being an American when the US launched the invasion of their Headquarters for the war in the Pacific.

That all these islanders who came forward during my trip to Saipan last year - who never have spoken about what they saw, or what their parents saw or what their relatives told them - was untrue. Again - I'd LOVE for this to be her plane. Then it would mean she didn't die the tragic death everyone has told me she died... in their own words.

I'm sorry to say - there's not real evidence that links that piece to her plane - other than saying "it's a patch that she got in Florida." Which is why it was discounted 24 years ago. 

But gee, the article doesn't mention that, now does it? How could the author of this piece have missed that key detail?

Oh well. Stay tuned.

Amelia's Patch Found yet not found!

Hilarious. "If" we can match the patch, means they didn't, could not. Why continue to finance trips if you've already found the patch? Over 200 islanders saw AE and Fred Noonan after she disappeared. They saw the Electra come down, they saw it put on a Japanese ship and they saw it transported to Saipan (part of Japan since 1914). They saw her in prison, they saw her executed. US Marines found the plane June 19, 1944 and watched as US forces destroyed it.  There's no mystery here.  The mystery is how these "photos" become "news"!?! Just listen to the eyewitnesses and judge for yourself (please):

If you want to know what really happened - according to eyewitness reports, watch this clip:

Amelia Earhart on Saipan

Happy Birthday Amelia

The latest clips from eyewitnesses who saw Earhart on Saipan, or heard from someone who did.

A day of remembrance... for Amelia Earhart on July 2, 2014

Today is the day that Amelia disappeared in 1937.

She disappeared from the newspapers, and from the radar - but not from the planet.

And not from our hearts...

For those who'd like to know "What happened?" you've come to the right place.

She may not have found Howland, but she did find land.  In Mili Atoll.  (Oliver Knaggs, a South African author went to Mili and interviewed a number of people, including the Queen of Mili.  They all said they saw her plane come down and land on the beach.)

She was then arrested by the Japanese.  (At the time, the Japanese had mandated these islands, were not supposed to be reinforcing the harbors for war, but they were, in violation of the League of Nations.  Be that as it may, they'd beheaded a British couple the year before for spying.  So when she showed up, they assumed she was a spy - whether or not she actually was one.)

She and Fred Noonan and the plane were taken to Majuro.  (The Electra was put aboard a barge - this report comes from the footage below).  She was then taken to Jaluit - where a number of people saw her, including a young doctor's assistant, who was interviewed a number of times.  And his business partner vouches for his honesty in the footage below.  She was then taken (by ship, possibly to Truk and Kwajalein, I've heard these reports but haven't followed them up yet) to Japan.  

Let me say that again: She was taken to Japan.

Japan?

Yes.  Japan.  Saipan was part of Japanese territory effectively in 1914, and officially in the 1920's. The headquarters for the Japanese Navy was based in Saipan. (It's estimated 30,000 Japanese soldiers died defending Saipan - once the airfield was taken, the US could bomb Tokyo and refuel).

She was seen entering Saipan by Josephine Blanco (in the footage below) arriving at the Seaplane harbor with Fred Noonan. She was taken to a hospital (son of a nurse interviewed below) where her wounds were attended to. She was then put into the jail on Garapan - spent an indeterminate time in a smaller cell (according to an eyewitness who was incarcerated next to her cell, and down the hall from Noonan) and she was then, at some point transported to a larger cell (across from the Commandant's office.)  She spent a number of years in that cell.

A number of people saw her in the prison, heard she was in the prison, or saw her plane at Aslito. All are referenced in the footage below

The last verifiable sighting of her was in 1944. She was on the back of a truck being guarded by two soldiers.  Two people (eyewitnesses who don't know each other, but both came forward to say they saw her on that same day) in the footage below saw her on that truck in late May or early June of 1944. As one of the eyewitnesses said "I was 12 years old.  I have never seen a caucasian woman in my life.  And here was one wearing man's clothes, her hands tied, with two soldiers guarding her with guns.  It's not something you'd ever forget."  (His brother was an eyewitness as well, and still lives on Saipan).

According to a woman who lives near the jail, her Japanese grandfather told her that the "american female pilot was beheaded and cremated."  An interview with that woman is in the footage below and a visit to the crematorium.

Her plane was found on Aslito airfield on June 19th, 1944.  

How do I know that date? Because the man who decoded the message (footage below) remembered the date, and it matches when they took the airfield. Her plane was in a hangar.  It was seen by numerous GI's (12 so far and counting) and it was then flown "around the field" - witnessed by a number of GI's. The plane was destroyed by US forces (for unknown reasons) a few weeks later - and the man who decoded that order is in the footage below.

He's a US Marine.  So are many  other eyewitnesses.  You think the Marines would make this up?  I suggest walking up to any Marine and suggesting the same to their face.  Not very likely.

Her body was obviously never recovered, but her briefcase, maps and passport was.  The Marine who found those objects is also in the footage below.  It was turned over to the proper authorities. Who have kept this story a secret for all these years.  Why? I don't know. But I don't particularly care - I'm not interested in their mistakes, or their cover up, or their reasons for keeping this woman's death an enduring mystery. I'm just interested in what happened.

So it's wonderful to honor the memory of Amelia Earhart.  But it's really about time to honor her memory with the truth.  

The truth, you see, is the thing that's supposed to set us free.  It's in the good book. It's also carved into the wall of the CIA.  So, hey, how about a little truth?

In honor of Amelia Earhart and her sacrifice for this country (it appears the only reason she was executed because she was an American and the US was on their way to liberate Saipan), I salute her and present this information to everyone to see for themselves.

Eyewitness Reports

The latest clips from eyewitnesses who saw Earhart on Saipan, or heard from someone who did.

Interview with Amelia Earhart

An interview with Amelia Earhart. This is a little mind bending. I supplied some of the questions for this; some of the answers only I know - based on my 20 years of research. (I was hired to work on "Amelia") The question "who was the love of your life?" and "did they burn your plane?" get very unusual answers.  I can only say that key elements I've confirmed via other sources. While Dr. Medhus or the medium have great knowledge about her life and death, whether one "believes" in mediums or the afterlife is beside the point - as "Amelia" says here - "How I died is not important. How I lived is."  (Dr Medhus conducts these interviews with a medium she's been working with for some time via skype - they've been speaking to a number of people via Dr Medhus' son who died some years back, and he helps facilitate the connection; hence the conversational tone.) I helped fix the sound on this interview, as there was a kink in the microphone.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIqUzcSD3xs