It's one of the most enduring mysteries of our time: what happened to pioneering aviator Amelia Earhart, who disappeared over the Pacific Ocean in 1937 as she attempted to fly around the world?
Four border collies named Berkeley, Piper, Marcy, and Kayle may have answers. On Wednesday, National Geographic reported that an expedition organized by the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) will set sail from Fiji on Saturday, June 24, with the specially trained forensic dogs from the Institute for Canine Forensics along for the ride.
The mystery of what happened to Amelia Earhart may be as close as it’s ever been to being solved https://t.co/Kqa1bGdu1c
— National Geographic (@NatGeo) June 21, 2017
The group's Earhart Project has spent decades testing the hypothesis that Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan landed safely on Gardner Island, now called Nikumaroro, about 400 miles (640 kilometers) southeast of their intended landing spot, Howland Island. According to the project's website, the group believes Earhart and Noonan survived on the island for a time as castaways, catching and cooking small fish, seabirds, turtles and clams.
(Score: 5, Funny) by takyon on Saturday June 24 2017, @04:26PM (2 children)
Bone-Sniffing Dogs Consume Amelia Earhart's Remains
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by driverless on Sunday June 25 2017, @02:17AM (1 child)
Given the ratio of land : sea in the area where she may have gone down, wouldn't they be better off going with bone-sniffing dolphins?
(Score: 2) by VLM on Sunday June 25 2017, @12:32PM
Speaking of ratios, given the ratio of bone to metal or bone to all the other junk they had in the plane, you'd think they'd have better luck finding most anything other than bone.
Also island ecosystems "know" how to recycle bone so its possible there's nothing biological left, but something more elaborate like eyeglasses or navigation equipment is harder for crabs and seagulls to recycle. There should be rusting hulks of aircraft engines somewhere, etc.
I find it unlikely people trying to be rescued would treated it like a modern "leave no trace" national park. Of course "for a time" might mean like three days until they died of dehydration or wounds.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 24 2017, @05:34PM
Everybody knows that Amelia Earhart is being kept in stasis [wikia.com] in the Delta Quadrant.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Saturday June 24 2017, @05:48PM (2 children)
Wasn't she abducted by aliens? That is why they can't find her. So good luck with the dogs.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Saturday June 24 2017, @07:37PM
Time traveling aliens lead by Elvis.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Saturday June 24 2017, @08:26PM
Yes, she'll emerge in the 2370s having been cryogenically frozen along with a Japanese soldier and American farmer
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Nuke on Saturday June 24 2017, @06:38PM (5 children)
I thought that her remains were found there a few years ago. AFAIR searchers even found evidence of Earhart and Noonan's camp and some of their equipment.
FTFA :
So this is just a search for more of her bones?
(Score: 4, Interesting) by frojack on Saturday June 24 2017, @07:20PM
Wiki says those items found on this island were inconclusive
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikumaroro [wikipedia.org]
However there has been at least one documented shipwreck on the island [tighar.org] (pictures) with 11 fatalities, so any bones found (then, or by these dogs) may have other logical sources.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by fishybell on Saturday June 24 2017, @07:23PM (1 child)
And more importantly, how will the (potential) bones help them?
Do they have Earhart or Noonan's DNA? Will they just make assumptions based on the bones being anglo-saxon?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by zocalo on Saturday June 24 2017, @08:39PM
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: 2) by black6host on Saturday June 24 2017, @08:28PM
Really, it's too much. They already lost the first batch, they shouldn't be looking for more...
(Score: 3, Insightful) by deadstick on Sunday June 25 2017, @01:34AM
This is a search for more of your money. He's been doing this for a living for going on thirty years.
(Score: 1) by tftp on Saturday June 24 2017, @09:21PM
If I were the spirit of Amelia Earhart, I'd strongly insist on leaving my bones where they are.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Sunday June 25 2017, @12:49PM
http://www.theelectraproject.com/electra-flies.html [theelectraproject.com]
With an elaborate explanation of navigational technique of that era and communications discussion why:
"the downed plane may be either west or east of Howland at some distance – perhaps between 30 and 60 miles" and then goes into a discussion of why based on weather reports it was probably west when it crashed into the sea.
Something I can't find online is in the 90s there was a boxed retail flight sim addon for Earhart's planned route, including all the airports at that time and if I recall it contained minimal charts. Its been so well memory holed I can't find its existence via the usual google searches. I purchased it in the 90s (couldn't have been as recent as 00s for some living quarters reasons and pilot license training reasons) and I remember her aircraft wasn't the easiest to fly and had relatively poor visibility.