![]() Something intriguing was recovered from the ocean floor with technology beyond any that had ever been used in the search for Amelia Earhart. This was a fitting end to what in many respects was a successful expedition (filmed by National Geographic for a two-hour special airing October 20). Photograph by Rob Lyall, National Geographic “It bends too much.”Īn aerial view of the Nautilus, with the small yellow ROV Hercules seen portside. “It sure looked like aluminum underwater,” said Megan Lubetkin, a member of Nautilus’s science crew.īallard picked up the piece. The silver sheet was more promising, especially since it appeared to have rivet holes. The black fragment wasn’t aluminum so it couldn’t come from Earhart’s Lockheed Electra 10e. Inside the seawater-filled bin was a laptop-size silver sheet and a crumbling black fragment that was part of something that looked like a barrel.īallard examined the items in the ship’s lab. Nautilus was scheduled to leave Nikumaroro for Samoa in an hour.ĭonning black plastic gloves, Ballard slid a container out of the front of the ROV. As Hercules streamed water onto the deck, Robert Ballard, the chief scientist on the expedition, went to check the last samples that the ROV brought up. Unfortunately, it seems likely that we’ll never know.Nikumaroro Island, Kiribati Early in the morning on the last day of the expedition to find Amelia Earhart’s plane, the crew of the E/V Nautilus pulled Hercules, a remotely operated vehicle (ROV), out of the ocean. That conclusion may solve one mystery, but it would create a few more: how long did Earhart survive? What were her final days like? Sadly, without the bones to further the analysis, it’s impossible to state conclusively that these bones did indeed belong to Earhart, but based on Jantz assessment, it seems more likely than not that Earhart really did make it to Nikumaroro Island. In fact, he went on to write that, “This analysis reveals that Earhart is more similar to the Nikumaroro bones than 99% of individuals in a large reference sample.” “The fact remains that if the bones are those of a stocky male, he would have had bone lengths very similar to Amelia Earhart’s, which is a low-probability event,” Jantz wrote. ![]() Using modern forensics and a computer program designed to aid in determining age and gender from bone measurements, Jantz came to a very different conclusion than Hoodless. A study published last year by Professor Richard Jantz from the University of Tennessee contests Hoodless’ findings using the very figures the doctor recorded in his notes back in 1940. ![]() There was just one problem: forensic osteology, or the study of bones for these sorts of purposes, was far from the robust and mature science it is today.īut that’s not the end of the story. Hoodless of Fiji’s Central Medical School buckled down to study them. The skull and a dozen or so other bones were gathered from the site and shipped to Fiji, and the following year Doctor D.W. Based on the bones and other items found ashore, it even seemed possible that Earhart may have survived the sea-landing and made it to the island, only to eventually succumb to starvation, dehydration, or her injuries. A theory began to form: Earhart may have seen the island in the distance and attempted to make it there as her fuel finally ran out. The small stature of the bones along with the other items discovered and the island’s location in the Pacific made it seem entirely feasible that the team had actually discovered the lost remains of the famed aviator. As they scouted the island, they came across some rather unusual objects: a human skull and other bones, along with a woman’s shoe, a box made to hold a Brandis Navy Surveying Sextant (for use in navigation) that had been manufactured around 1918, and a bottle of Benedictine - which was an herbal-based liquor. In 1940, just three years after Earhart and Noonan disappeared, a British expedition arrived on the Pacific island of Nikumaroro and set about scouting the landmass for settlement. Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan with their Lockheed Electra.
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