Amelia Earhart's remains?

[Holman]

They've discovered bones on a Pacific atoll that may be Amelia Earhart's resting place. DNA testing now.

The "best case" supposition has always been that Earhart and her copilot crashed at sea and drowned. If these remains are hers, it's likely that they made an emergency landing at this atoll and then suffered lingering death as castaways.

[LawBeefaroni]

Three years after Earhart disappeared British colonial authorities, who then administered Nikumaroro, found 13 bones from a human skeleton at the site of the latest discoveries. The bones were later assessed to be "more likely female than male" and "more likely white than Polynesian or other Pacific Islander". Those bones have since been lost.

[tgb]

Let me know when they find the wreckage.

[Paingod]

Why, so shortly after such a high-profile disappearance, when someone finds bones on a remote beach that look like a womans, wouldn't they do a little more to find out what happened or even take better care of them?

That seems like bumbling idiocy in today's world of forensic analysis.

Regardless of who was there, I don't think "Eaten by Crabs" is high on my list of ways to go. It's Castaway without a happy ending.

[Odin]

Sure does put Night at the Museum 2 in a whole different light.

[Holman]

Three years after Earhart disappeared British colonial authorities, who then administered Nikumaroro, found 13 bones from a human skeleton at the site of the latest discoveries. The bones were later assessed to be "more likely female than male" and "more likely white than Polynesian or other Pacific Islander". Those bones have since been lost.

Some bones were found back in 1940, and those are the ones that were later lost.

But if I read the story right, the news is that *more* bones have now been discovered (a possible finger and neck bone) that were missed in the earlier find. These are the ones now being tested.

[Sectoid]

Why, so shortly after such a high-profile disappearance, when someone finds bones on a remote beach that look like a womans, wouldn't they do a little more to find out what happened or even take better care of them?

That seems like bumbling idiocy in today's world of forensic analysis.

Regardless of who was there, I don't think "Eaten by Crabs" is high on my list of ways to go. It's Castaway without a happy ending.

WILSON!!!

[LawBeefaroni]

Three years after Earhart disappeared British colonial authorities, who then administered Nikumaroro, found 13 bones from a human skeleton at the site of the latest discoveries. The bones were later assessed to be "more likely female than male" and "more likely white than Polynesian or other Pacific Islander". Those bones have since been lost.

Some bones were found back in 1940, and those are the ones that were later lost.

But if I read the story right, the news is that *more* bones have now been discovered (a possible finger and neck bone) that were missed in the earlier find. These are the ones now being tested.

Well, right. I got that. The quote is from the OP article.

I posted the quote because it's surprising, as Paingod mentioned, to learn that these earlier bones were found by the British and no connection was made to Earhart. Even if no conneciton were made to her specifically, they assumed it was a white female so you'd think some curiosity would be aroused. If it's not surprising (there was a war brewing in the Pacific) it's at least frustrating.

[Blackhawk]

The thing is that I've heard about the lost bones off and on for years. It was long suspected that they may have been her. Whether the connection was made at the time or suspected later I've no idea, but I doubt they'd have had the resources to test them back then anyway.

[Steron]

Interesting. I wonder what the DNA sample Earhart's family provided is? Hair maybe?

[triggercut]

Why, so shortly after such a high-profile disappearance, when someone finds bones on a remote beach that look like a womans, wouldn't they do a little more to find out what happened or even take better care of them?

That seems like bumbling idiocy in today's world of forensic analysis.

Regardless of who was there, I don't think "Eaten by Crabs" is high on my list of ways to go. It's Castaway without a happy ending.

It was 1940. The world had bigger fish to fry. Especially the Brits.

It'll be ok, pookie.

[silverjon]

Interesting. I wonder what the DNA sample Earhart's family provided is? Hair maybe?

If she has surviving relatives, they can test for mDNA to see if there's a match to prove genetic relationship. They don't need a sample known to have come from Amelia Earhart herself.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitochondr ... nheritance" target="_blank

[Steron]

Interesting. I wonder what the DNA sample Earhart's family provided is? Hair maybe?

If she has surviving relatives, they can test for mDNA to see if there's a match to prove genetic relationship. They don't need a sample known to have come from Amelia Earhart herself.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitochondr ... nheritance" target="_blank

Oh duh. I'm stupid.

[Ralph-Wiggum]

The suspected finger is being tested for human DNA. It may turn out to be from a turtle – which have similar bones in their flippers.

[Paingod]

Why, so shortly after such a high-profile disappearance, when someone finds bones on a remote beach that look like a womans, wouldn't they do a little more to find out what happened or even take better care of them?

That seems like bumbling idiocy in today's world of forensic analysis.

Regardless of who was there, I don't think "Eaten by Crabs" is high on my list of ways to go. It's Castaway without a happy ending.

It was 1940. The world had bigger fish to fry. Especially the Brits.

It'll be ok, pookie.

At the risk of sounding like AJ Rimmer - That's no excuse. Someone was down there playing in the sand, someone found these things. Who simply misplaces human remains and wanders away whistling, eh Listie?

[Holman]

The story behind Amelia Earhart's lost bones is probably something stupid like misplaced records or falling into some sort of customs limbo pertaining to human remains.

But I prefer to believe that Indiana Jones chased them halfway around the world to prevent Hermann Goering from using them to strengthen the black magic long-range navigation of the Luftwaffe. That's why the Nazis never had a strategic bomber.

[Turtle]

Well, NASA did tape over the moon landings.

[Isgrimnur]

New photo

A newly discovered photograph suggests legendary aviator Amelia Earhart, who vanished 80 years ago on a round-the-world flight, survived a crash-landing in the Marshall Islands.

The photo, found in a long-forgotten file in the National Archives, shows a woman who resembles Earhart and a man who appears to be her navigator, Fred Noonan, on a dock. The discovery is featured in a new History channel special, "Amelia Earhart: The Lost Evidence," that airs Sunday.

Independent analysts told History the photo appears legitimate and undoctored. Shawn Henry, former executive assistant director for the FBI and an NBC News analyst, has studied the photo and feels confident it shows the famed pilot and her navigator.
...
Les Kinney, a retired government investigator who has spent 15 years looking for Earhart clues, said the photo "clearly indicates that Earhart was captured by the Japanese."

Japanese authorities told NBC News they have no record of Earhart being in their custody.

The photo, marked "Jaluit Atoll" and believed to have been taken in 1937, shows a short-haired woman — potentially Earhart — on a dock with her back to the camera. (She's wearing pants, something for which Earhart was known.) She sits near a standing man who looks like Noonan — down to the hairline.
...
The photo shows a Japanese ship, Koshu, towing a barge with something that appears to be 38-feet-long — the same length as Earhart's plane.

For decades, locals have claimed they saw Earhart's plane crash before she and Noonan were taken away. Native schoolkids insisted they saw Earhart in captivity. The story was even documented in postage stamps issued in the 1980s.

"We believe that the Koshu took her to Saipan [in the Mariana Islands], and that she died there under the custody of the Japanese," said Gary Tarpinian, the executive producer of the History special.

"We don't know how she died," Tarpinian said. "We don't know when."

It is not clear if the U.S. government knew who was in the photo. If it was taken by a spy, the U.S. may not have wanted to compromise that person by revealing the image.

[Holman]

I believe I read a couple of late 2016/early 2017 articles that said the DNA investigation of the OP bones was still ongoing.

Apparently decades, crab action, and the South Pacific climate are not kind to DNA evidence.

[Moliere]

Blogger discredits claim Amelia Earhart was taken prisoner by Japan

The film said the image “may hold the key to solving one of history’s all-time greatest mysteries” and suggested it disproved the widely accepted theory that Earhart and Noonan disappeared over the western Pacific on 2 July 1937 near the end of their attempt at a history-making flight around the world.

But serious doubts now surround the film’s premise after a Tokyo-based blogger unearthed the same photograph in the archives of the National Diet Library, Japan’s national library.

The image was part of a Japanese-language travelogue about the South Seas that was published almost two years before Earhart disappeared. Page 113 states the book was published in Japanese-held Palau on 10 October 1935.

[LawBeefaroni]

It seemed very tenuous. Woman (probably a woman) in pants (probably in pants) with short hair and a man with a common hairstyle of the time.

[McNutt]

The new photo's date is in question after it was found in a 1935 Japanese book, which predates Earhart's flight.

[stessier]

45 minutes late...you'll have to eat lunch earlier to beat Moliere.

[McNutt]

Newman!

[Isgrimnur]

Amelia Earhart's long-lost plane possibly detected by sonar 16,000 feet underwater, exploration team claims

Deep Sea Vision, a Charleston, South Carolina-based team, said this week that it had captured a sonar image in the Pacific Ocean that "appears to be Earhart's Lockheed 10-E Electra" aircraft.

The company, which says it scanned over 5,200 square miles of the ocean floor starting in September, posted sonar images on social media that appear to show a plane-shaped object resting at the bottom of the sea. The 16-member team, which used a state-of-the-art underwater drone during the search, also released video of the expedition.
...
Tony Romeo, a pilot and former U.S. Air Force intelligence officer, told the Wall Street Journal that he funded the $11 million search by selling off his commercial real estate properties.
...
Romeo told the Journal that his team's underwater "Hugin" submersible captured the sonar image of the aircraft-shaped object about 16,000 feet below the Pacific Ocean's surface less than 100 miles from Howland Island, where Earhart and Noonan were supposed to stop and refuel before they vanished.

Romeo's team didn't find the image until about three months into the trip, and at that stage it was impractical to turn back, he told the Journal, so they intend to return for a closer look.
...
"Until you physically take a look at this, there's no way to say for sure what that is," underwater archaeologist Andrew Pietruszka told the newspaper.

[Holman]

How long will it be before we can sure that Earhart isn't still out there alive and hunting us??

[Max Peck]

She'd be 127 years old now, so if she is alive and hunting us, I'm not too worried about it. If someone that old can take me down, good for them.

[em2nought]

She'd be 127 years old now, so if she is alive and hunting us, I'm not too worried about it. If someone that old can take me down, good for them.

No problem, maybe she wasn't "lost" and instead she flew west beyond the "horizon" to Shangri-La. Only a problem if she tries to leave.