r/history • u/TimesandSundayTimes • 1d ago
Will mystery of Amelia Earhart’s fate be solved at the bottom of a lagoon?
https://www.thetimes.com/us/news-today/article/amelia-earhart-new-search-plane-south-pacific-island-ps9vjnq93?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Reddit&utm_content=branded77
u/Rus_s13 1d ago edited 1d ago
They got there yesterday, and are being hampered by crabs apparently.
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u/Sub-Mongoloid 1d ago
That seems like a private matter which should be discussed with their romantic partners.
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u/twentycanoes 1d ago
The crabs don't attack people. Despite having strong claws, they are primarily scavengers.
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u/UnicornAgentU7 20h ago
These aren't large versions of hermit crabs. Coconut crabs are considered omnivorous scavengers. Among other things, they're known to capture and eat birds, rats, and other small animals.
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/coconut-crabs-bird-eating-giants-on-tropical-islands.html
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u/seaworthy-sieve 20h ago
Really? What if you're sleeping on the ground out in the open?
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u/TiltDogg 12h ago
They are incredibly slow and docile. You could literally just walk away from one.
As for sleeping, they return to the ship every night to sleep... mostly because of the crabs.
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u/know_nothing_novice 14h ago
At least four coconut crabs were encountered along the way, but they posed no threat to the operation.
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u/Dramatic_Agency_8721 20h ago
If they arrived yesterday shouldn't they have a good idea already? Isn't it a small atoll?
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u/semigator 1d ago
Did they discover the fallen tree trunk yet?
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u/zanhecht 19h ago
For some reason, actually going to look for the object is their last step, after establishing a base camp, clearing vegetation, and searching the land with metal detectors. It's almost like they want to draw this thing out as long as possible instead of just taking a small boat over to the object in 5 feet of water.
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u/TiltDogg 12h ago
It is approximately 10 feet off shore in approximately 5 feet of water. You could walk out during low tide in a pair of shoes carrying a shovel to dig it up. They could have figured out if that thing was a plane within the hour they got there without ever putting down their drinks.
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u/kareljack 1d ago
No. It will be solved when the Federation starship 'Voyager' enters the Delta quadrant.
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u/FoodLionMVP 1d ago
I know that it’s most likely they were lost to the ocean, but the radio evidence is pretty compelling. It’s understandable that people keep trying to find them.
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u/MyChickenSucks 16h ago
It’s compelling enough they’ve thrown some serious money at it. Ballard isn’t a hack.
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u/karmafrog1 23h ago
I agree. Everyone always jumping all over these guys basically hand waves the evidence they’ve presented without much engagement.
I mean, yeah, a lot of it is pretty weak and easily explained in other ways but as for the radio stuff, the dismissals by critics haven’t been very convincing.
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u/TheWatersOfMars 1d ago
Having spent the past week doing a serious deep-dive into this: probably not, but it's not impossible, so it's absolutely worth checking out. Very excited to hear what the object is in a few days.
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u/Lain_Staley 1d ago
The 'purpose' of Amelia crashing was an excuse to get US WARSHIPS in the Pacific to monitor Japan pre-WWII. Would be glad to post more on this topic.
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u/Beeninya 1d ago
Please don’t post more on your ‘topic’.
This is a history sub, not a conspiracy sub.
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u/Lain_Staley 1d ago edited 1d ago
I am genuinely surprised that this theory (that the US Military concocted a lie) of all theories, violates the Overton window. I implore the reader to be more cynical.
"Earhart famously vanished during her attempt to be the first woman to circumnavigate the world.
She vanished July 2, 1937 and you may notice that's just 5 days before the first half of WW2 began as Japan invaded China and that's important for what's really going on here.
The 1st Google result clarifies WW2 Began "not in Poland or Pearl Harbor but outside of Beijing"
...The quick answer to why can be understood by considering geography, timing, and search logistics.
There is a reason most articles about Earhart focus on the search, it's not just a logical topic, but it's at the core of intent. Notice any relevant countries in the map?
- 07/02/1937 Earhart Vanishes - Most Famous Search For Plane In History Begins
- 07/07/1937 Search Area Extends to New Area for Amelia Amelia Earhart, Costs $250,000 Each Day
- 07/07/1937 World War II Begins As Japan and China Clash Outside of Beijing
This "search" was an excuse to fund as many U.S. airplanes in the air as possible with an excuse to fly towards Japan & China for WWII.
07/04/1937 Navy's Ace Plane Carrier to Join Search for Amelia Earhart
Hence why the search rapidly expanded until the war started!"
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u/UnicornAgentU7 19h ago
You started off by claiming that nefarious government forces somehow orchestrated her crash to serve their ulterior motives. That's crazy talk, not worthy of a response.
Here, however, you're claiming something more reasonable. No, nobody orchestrated her crash. End of story on that. However, it is possible that somewhere along the way, since the opportunity presented itself, that the search took on a dual role.
The problem is, you're conflating two entirely different things: a search that took on a secondary purpose, along with something far more nefarious and conspiratorial, i.e., the orchestrated crash of her plane.
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u/Lain_Staley 18h ago
'Orchestrated her crash'?
That's ridiculous. I'm implying that the US Military fabricated her crash. More bluntly: they faked her death.
You really don't think, especially back in 1937, that such a thing couldn't be done?
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u/MandolinMagi 1d ago
What exactly was stopping the US sending ships to the Pacific to monitor Japan before she flew?
Also, her flight only gives you an excuse for a week.
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u/Lain_Staley 1d ago
Often times militaries use the excuse of 'performing an exercise' while actually performing missions. Makes sense as an excuse, right? Optics.
What excuse could the US Navy have thousands of miles in the Pacific? At such an opportune time? 'Amelia' delivered it.
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u/MandolinMagi 1d ago
The Navy didn't need an excuse, and at most you get a cruiser in the area for a week.
Much easier to have a ship based out of China poke around wherever you want it to.
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u/vito1221 1d ago
Her accomplishments cannot be questioned, but you would think she was the only pioneering female aviator.
I hope this is her plane and they find their remains so we don't have to see this pop up every year or two.
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u/IAmATelekinetic 1d ago
I'm pretty sure her accomplishments can be questioned. She was a mediocre pilot, and most of her fame came from her husband's marketing push (he wanted to use her to get rich). There are much cooler female aviators from the same time period that just didn't have the media attention.
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u/UnicornAgentU7 19h ago
Yeah, that's a bunch of bullshit. Along with other female aviators, she faced enormous hostility from the male pilots of her day, and Amelia received the brunt of it because she was the one getting the most amount of attention. They sought to discredit her every chance they got.
Oh, and she was already breaking records and making a name for herself before her husband ever came along.
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u/vito1221 1d ago
I was trying to be a little 'softer' but yeah, I always believed much of it was hype.
She did set some legit records, but...
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u/AppendixN 1d ago
And yet ironically, you didn't bother naming any of the others that you feel are more important to talk about.
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u/vito1221 1d ago
You will see these and others if you do a Google search. And you can look up Earhart's accomplishments as well. Impressive, but she wasn't the only one.
Elinor Smith is probably the one who is most overshadowed. Youngest person to get a pilot's license. (16 years old in 1928). Considered by many to be the best female pilot in the US at the time.
Bessie Coleman was part black, part Native American known for her outstanding stunt flying.
Amy Johnson was the first woman to fly solo from London to Australia.
Ruth Nichols held world records for speed, altitude, and distance by a woman.
Louise Thaden won the Bendix Trophy in 1936.
Beryl Markham - first PERSON to fly solo from England to North America in 1936.
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u/TiltDogg 12h ago
All correct. But those people weren't lost during their incredibly commendable feats. People are driven to find answers when they have none. I think the radio transmissions fuel the fire by absolutely providing credible evidence that they were alive on the ground, not lost at sea. If they were alive on the ground, human nature wants to know where. If any of your aforementioned female pilots were lost under the same circumstances, we would definitely be having the same conversations about them.
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u/AppendixN 1d ago
You're not going to mention Raymonde de Laroche, Bessie Raiche, Harriet Quimby, or Helen Richey? No Aida de Acosta, Princess Anne of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg, Pancho Barnes, Jean Batten, Lilian Bland, Katherine Cheung, Tadashi Hyōdō, or Jerrie Mock?
Do you even care about pioneering women aviators?
You've just said that it's some kind of erasure to mention one pioneer without talking about the others, so be consistent, you didn't even acknowledge the first woman to ever get a pilot's license, or the first woman to fly solo around the world!
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u/vito1221 13h ago
Your Google search went deep. I didn't feel like going that far. And don't lie...you had to look them up as well. I mentioned a sample.
My point isn't 'erasure' of others, it's more AE getting hyped up to mythical status when she wasn't all that.
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u/AppendixN 12h ago
I literally just had to look at one Wikipedia page. And I already knew about a couple of them, but obviously not all.
It's just silly to get mad that people are talking about a woman aviator because you think everyone's being stupid for not talking about other ones, if you aren't even going to mention any in your complaint. By your own statement, you had to Google to find out who any of them were.
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u/mrkrabz1991 1h ago
The odds of them finding remains (even if this is the plane) is almost non-existent. This island has been heavily searched over the years with nothing compelling ever being found. The only reason they're going back is because a huge storm a decade ago dug up the beach and reveled this object, which has been seen a few times with satellites, so they want to go check it out.
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u/Evening_Benefit_3902 23h ago
Nope she ran out fuel before that and ditch it. Nothing to find as there would be nothing left after 80 plus years it was a small plane.
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u/jason2354 19h ago
There is probably plenty left. The question is if it’s buried under 30 feet of sand and sediment.
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u/Evening_Benefit_3902 9h ago
The plane was aluminium its long gone the only thing that they could possiable find is the planes engines
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u/Paranoma 8h ago
Lmao wtf are you talking about. Aluminum doesn’t dissolve in salt water. They just found a perfectly intact aircraft from the 1930’s in the Atlantic.
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u/invalidmail2000 19h ago
Well if they crashed on a little reef / Island like what they are investigating there probably would still be some wreckage.
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u/RedRedditor84 17h ago
I heard it was a Russian surface to air missile that did her in.
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u/Hikinghawk 8h ago
I heard it was a joint Atlantean (Pacific Branch) and Japanese UFO project that misidentified her as a milkman.
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u/litetravelr 18h ago
Hasnt that island been searched multiple times by now? That looks like a tree.
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u/zigaliciousone 16h ago
I thought they already kinda solved it and decided that at least one of them made it to shore badly injured and were likely killed and consumed by the coconut crabs?
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u/Independent-Towel-47 11h ago
They ditched in the ocean and their remains are 3000 feet down covered in mud. There must be some mystery more worthy of funding
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u/Icedog-26 10h ago
I wouldn’t hold my breath, but who knows? Let’s wait until they get to that specific location.
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u/FreddyF2 2h ago
I think the bigger question is why could they not have flown a few drones over the area at a cost of 1/1000th of this expedition and furthered their theory first, instead of this expedition.
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u/jnighy 1d ago
Why did I think it was solved? Was I Mandela Effected?
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u/TheRecognized 1d ago
As in having spotty memory about a headline you skimmed past years ago? Yes, probably.
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u/ScoobiusMaximus 17h ago
We all know she actually hit Malaysia Airlines flight 370 when it hit a wormhole
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u/AerikTitlesTitles 1d ago
FFS, Nikumaroro again? This was investigated years ago.
We know what happened to Earhart and Noonan: they failed to reach Howland Island, ran out of fuel, ditched in the open ocean, and perished.
It's not a mystery, people just can't accept it.