Mystery of Amelia Earhart Solved? Fragment From Missing Plane Identified

[brooklynite]

Source: Newsweek

Researchers at The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) revealed that a piece from Amelia Earhart’s vanished aircraft has been identified in Nikumaroro, an atoll in the southwestern Pacific republic of Kiribati. This is the first time that an artifact from the wreckage has been directly linked to Earhart’s last expedition, in which she was attempting to circumnavigate the Earth at the equator, and sheds new light on the 77-year-old aviation mystery.

The 19-inch-wide by 23-inch-long piece, found by researchers in 1991, is strongly believed to be a metal fragment installed on the window of Earhart’s Lockheed Electra aircraft during her eight-day stay in Miami, which was her fourth stop on the journey. A photograph on TIGHAR’s site from The Miami Herald, dated July 1, 1937, shows the aircraft intact with the metal patch.

Once the patch was identified in the photograph, researchers compared the patch with that of the Lockheed Electra aircraft at Wichita Air Services in Newton, Kansas, according to Discovery News. It matched the plans and the Electra’s structure. According to TIGHAR, the patch was a field modification whose “complex fingerprint of dimensions, proportions, materials and rivet patterns was as unique to Earhart’s Electra as a fingerprint is to an individual.” The sheet’s purpose was for the pilot to be able to take in “celestial observations” from thousands of feet in the sky.

Read more: http://www.newsweek.com/mystery-amelia-earhart-solved-fragment-fallen-plane-identified-280856?piano_t=1

[alcibiades_mystery]

1. Wait, there's a "southwestern Pacific republic of Kiribati?????"

Learn something new every day.

[dbackjon]

8. Well, at least for a few more decades

[Igel]

10. Formerly the Gilberts.

Hence Kiribati.

The name is just
Gilberts
Gil-buht
Kir(i)bat(i)

Typical limited Polynesian consonant inventory.

[pangaia]

14. "Typical limited Polynesian consonant inventory."

That is why we have German and Dutch..

Balance..

[hootinholler]

15. No, not German and Dutch

Welsh is the champion of consonants!

[pangaia]

16. YIKES !!

[bigwillq]

2. Thanks for posting.

Always been fascinated about what happened to that plane.

K and R

[Contrary1]

3. I found this slideshow following one of the links in the story:

http://news.discovery.com/history/us-history/where-amelia-earhart-plane-fragment-came-from-photos-141028.htm

[Historic NY]

4. Is "strongly believed" to be a metal fragment installed on the window....

well if they have held onto it for 23yrs. Now is suddenly found out to be a part. What makes them so cocksure it is now. Why not another plane?? Makes no sense a 19x23 inch piece of aluminium.

[calimary]

5. Wow!

Seventy-seven years...

[Aristus]

6. A fragment that could be part of the plane.

Well, that's certainly better evidence than what they've been touting so far: "See this little thingy sticking up out of the water in this grainy photo taken off the coast of a tiny Pacific atoll? It could be part of Amelia Earhart's plane!"

[Historic NY]

17. the fragement they are showing doesn't match the one

they say they recovered in 1991...unless of course they cut it down to fit the discourse they are spouting. Really one little inexplicable piece of a so called retrofit. It took them this long to figure out. The bridge in Brooklyn is still available!

[Orrex]

7. Hmm...

http://www.cracked.com/article_18718_6-famous-unsolved-mysteries-that-have-totally-been-solved.html

Check out entry # 6.

[F4lconF16]

9. Thanks for the link. nt

[gvstn]

18. The coconut crabs mentioned in your article and this comment from gawker.

I saw a documentary where they were investigating Nikumaroro as a possible crash site, and that they had found evidence that a person, likely a woman lived there for some time around when Earharts' disappearance took place. One point that they made that made the hair stand up on the back of my neck is that she probably died of an opportunistic infection at some point, and that as she lay dying, her weakened body would have been set upon and eaten while she was still alive by a swarm of crabs. Imagine that as your last moments.

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

11. Take it with a grain of salt

This group has declared the mystery solved multiple times. The Smithsonian questions their findings.

[Paolo123]

12. Yup

Very convenient the one piece of metal they found was just a random piece of aluminum. It could have come from anywhere.

[The Magistrate]

13. I Agree, Sir

These people do not have a good name among fellows who hunt up and document and collect aircraft wrecks from WWII in the Pacific.