July 2, 2017, marks the 80th anniversary of the disappearance of Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan. Since their disappearance, no one has been able to find them, despite numerous attempts.
This week, National Geographic Society’s Archaeologist-in-Residence, Fred Hiebert, along with the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR), will embark on a mission to solve the mystery of what happened to Amelia Earhart. The team sets sail from Fiji June 24.
They’ll be using a team of human remains detection dogs from the Institute for Canine Forensics (ICF) to test what they call the Nikumaroro hypothesis — that Earhart and Noonan landed on the uninhabited Nikumaroro Island when they were aiming for tiny Howland Island just north of the equator.
The team has devoted the last three decades to testing this theory that was developed after 13 bones were discovered on Nikumaroro Island in 1940.
The remains were then shipped to Fiji, measured, and subsequently lost. The goal of the expedition is to locate the estimated 193 bones that remain unaccounted for on the island, according to the explorers.
The team of four dogs from ICF have nosed out burial sites as deep as nine feet and as old as 1,500 years.
“No other technology is more sophisticated than the dogs,” says Hiebert, who is sponsoring the canines. “They have a higher rate of success identifying things than ground-penetrating radar.”
Could you imagine being stranded on a very small island, You can communicate to the world. But no one knows where to look for you! The irony is you made a successful touchdown. Now all you can do is wait.And no one put two and two together when you mention ” NORWITCH CITY” thinking you are saying “NEW YORK CITY” ! How frustrating! No one evidently remembered that old ship being run aground in 1929.I hope they find some conclusive evidence.
Best of luck in their search. Those are amazing dogs. If Earheart and Noonan’s remains are there I’ve no doubt the dogs will find them. There were those mysterious radio calls picked up by Pan AM Clippers and Ham Radio Operators for several days after they went missing which could have come from Earheart & Noonan assuming they landed somewhere with a functioning engine and radio and enough fuel to run the engine for a short while to broadcast in the blind. If the sextant was damaged determining their position would have been near impossible. Would prefer to think they were marooned rather than falling into the hands of the Japanese who might have regarded them as spies and treated them accordingly.
I would think the most logical and ‘easy’ answer to be the truth here; lost, out of fuel, splashed in the vast Pacific…but there’s always that one slippery feeling, We want to know; the mind questions “I wonder what happened…?” Or “If…”
TIGHAR has been the target of much criticism as late, and I can see why. I do hope the crew best of luck and I, like so many others, would enjoy some clear proof as to what happened, and why. I suspect we shall never truly know.
Sounds like another fund-raising scam by Tighar