Plane wreck believed to be Earhart

[Barry Bernoulli]

From the Post-Courier 28 February 2011

Post-Courier Online (http://www.postcourier.com.pg/20110228/mohome.htm)


Plane wreck believed to be Earhart

THE discovery of an aircraft wreck at the depth of 70 metres north-west of Buka in Bougainville may hold some answers to the 74-year mystery of the disappearance of world-famous aviatrix – Amelia Earhart.
There are strong indications that the aircraft is a Lockheed Model 10 Electra which took off from Lae on July 2nd 1937 destined for Howland Island. The crash site is in direct alignment with Earhart’s flight path out of Lae, past north of Buka Island in a straight northeast direction to Howland.
Information emerging from Buka say that certain interested parties were in the process of engaging the services of a professional diver with appropriate diving gear from overseas to help in the recovery process.
A mining company in the area is said to be helping with the exercise. Local authorities and the villagers do not wish to go public on the discovery because of a reported gold bullion sitting in the aircraft which was difficult to pull out of the wreck.
The left side of the plane is covered in coral and divers have had difficulties clearing the coral from the plane. Divers also detail there is a six metre snake guarding the wreck.
A local group from Buka Island have been working with a local businessman to ascertain the remains and the confirmation of the wreckage since 2005. This is because some other “valuables” have been found on the wreck.
Initially, the wreckage was found in 2002 when fishermen from the region dived for beche de mer to sell. But local and old men and women from the island have their stories of this wreck since it crashed in strong lightning and bad weather which hit its left wing forcing it into the sea, nose first. The oldest man alive said he was 10 in 1937 when the plane with two people went down just off their reef.
The Post-Courier had known about the plane wreck since 2004 but has been collecting information and also because perhaps this was too true to believe, as the greatest mystery in aviation history was the disappearance of Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan in 1937. Numerous theories attempting to explain what happened to the flyers have emerged over the decades. Among these are crashing at sea, being marooned on a remote island, or becoming a Japanese prisoner. No conclusive evidence has ever been found to confirm or refute any of the leading theories or like the Howland Island theory – the Japanese capture of Earhart and Noonan, the Kiribati story and the East New Britain theory. Bougainville’s theory has now emerged and will soon be known once the last piece of confirmation is collected.
There were two different groups of villagers investigating this wreckage after divers found an aluminium box allegedly containing valuables in the wreck. But the legal group has now taken the stance since it has been communicating directly with a group in Maryland, USA since 2009. One group engaged several divers who failed to complete the task because of it’s difficulty. The other group has engaged another Pacific island diver (named) who has been investigating since 2006.
The theory remains – a six metre snake guards the wreckage, there had been 10 professional dives so far since May 2010 but the setback has always been fast sea current, very strong tide, dust on the seabed and heavy rain


The poster makes no claim regarding the reliability of the source publication nor the likely legitimacy of the finding.

[Fris B. Fairing]

From the Post-Courier 28 February 2011

too true to believe

[Waghi Warrior]

Well very interesting theory. I observed something very unusual recently that could be linked to this if it's at all true. What I saw was certainly unusual, however it may not be at all linked to this. I will say no more, appart from what I observed could be related to this theory, and if it is the results will I'm sure will be made public once the formalities are complete I guess.

[Capt Fathom]

Interesting indeed.

From previous historical reports, I understand radio reports were received from the aircraft right up to the expected ETA at Howland Island.

So not sure how that would tie in with wreckage near Buka?

[sixtiesrelic]

GOLD BULLION????? What would she be doing with that? paying bribes and for fuel?
She dumped the trailing aerial because it was too heavy.

Other valuables? ... what woman would cart valuables round with her on a round the world voyage.
Must ask Kay Cottee if she did.

20 foot sea snake??? Oh Yea the Buka Passage is full of monsters like that.
I'll need to see one of them.
Bit of the old "Here be Dragons" the old cartographers drew on maps.
Wikipedia reckons:-
Adults of most species grow to between 120–150 cm (3.9–4.9 ft) in length, with the largest, Hydrophis spiralis, reaching a maximum of 3 m (9.8 ft)

David Billings a LAME, has a theory that Amelia made it back to New Britain in an attempt to get to Rabaul which was the nearest strip she could use, so perhaps she did go down at Buka, but I can't swallow the Indiana Jones spectacularity.

[AxelPNG]

There was a policemen who went missing in the Southern Highlands after a run in with some rascals recently. He was found 7 hours walk away unconscious apparently being "guarded" by a large snake.

I think this may be where the sea snake story is coming from....

What is it with PNG and reptiles? Remember the giant Komodo dragon in Lae...

[AxelPNG]

The 'gold bullion in the wreck' story is also a common myth for all sorts of WWII wreckage from Yamamoto's downed plane in Bougainville to sunken subs in Finschhafen.

It is related to the cargo cult mentality from taim before (or present time, depending on where you look..).

[troppo]

P38's and Harleys in crates being buried at Manus, a couple of years ago there was a cave in New Ireland supposedly full of gold. All in all great stories but it would be nice to see an end to the Earhart mystery.

Now there was a young hooker from buka... what's the rest of the words again?

[onetrack]

The story lost a large chunk of credibility when a 6M sea snake came into it... then finished on a note of a total lack of credibility, when boxes of gold bullion were included, just to whet the readers appetites a little more.
Lemme see... they've also found Amelia living in the jungle on Buka?... but after this length of time, without human contact, she's afraid to come out?? :suspect:
Bwahahahahaha!! I see a great movie in the making!... and this story is the viral start, to its advertising trailer!!... :D

[aussie027]

This is an alternate possible location story for those who have not yet seen it--

AE HOME (http://www.electranewbritain.com/Page1.htm)

[GA_FATMAN]

aussie027 (http://www.pprune.org/members/171122-aussie027) Not a likely story that.

Read it a few times and think more likely to be a WW2 fighter from the states with similar rego which had crashed.

She most likely made it to Howland Island and crashed at sea or landed on a Island.

There is a group TIGHAR (http://vimeo.com/user2600585) that have a theory about an Island on the 157 radial that she last reported to be flying along. More likely theory.
Interesting read

[sixtiesrelic]

I'm with you aussie027.
I spent six hours with David Billings and he has some pretty convincing info.
More than the yanks with heresay and a skeleton.

The aircraft at Buka is likely to be a war wreck. The one in the jungle the Aussie patrol found during the war was pre-war and the only tin aeroplanes in PNG before the war were tin sheds with wings. Junkers and Ford trimotor with squarish sides of corrugated metal. The Lockheeds that operated there with Guinea Airways didn't get lost on New Britain.

[GA_FATMAN]

David has a theory that just seems highly unlikely.

The fact that Amelia after 19hrs of flying had contacted the radio operators aboard the Itasca which could clearly hear her transmission puts her atleast within the area.
She reported she was flying along the 157 radial from Howland Island again puts her in the area and they had overflown Nukumanu Island which puts them on course for Howland Island.

For her to be in New Britain where David says the wreck is puts her 2,000nm away.
How is this possible?
Just not a strong case again more likely she landed within the area of crashed at sea.

[sixtiesrelic]

Well gents, the fact that the Yanks said it wasn't one of theirs when the serial numbers were forwarded to them after the wreck was found during the war, sort of discounts a US service aircraft.
It wasn't an Aussie military or Civilian aircraft either.
It was unpainted on the outside and corroded... not a recent crash.
Amelia was taught how to conserve fuel by Lindberg. Lindy taught the ferry pilots during the war and I have spoken to one, years ago and he told me of the method of running on the lean side of peak and how he could get impossibley low fuel flows.

The book figure is high so no one gets into trouble when ham fisted people run out of fuel. Nothing's changed there modern cars do better than the computer says.

There's never been a wreck found in the Pacific but there's one in the jungle with the right sort of serial numbers which were taken down and noted on paper which you can look at.

David Billings has been involved with a number of wreck identifications and examinations in PNG, so he knows a bit more than armchair theorists.

I've flown an aircraft that had a radio failure, why couldn't Amelia's and she couldn't communicate her intention to go to the nearest suitable aerodrome... Rabaul.

Read the article.

[GA_FATMAN]

The time between take off and a last transmission were close to 19hrs and she had the chance up until then to report she was heading back to Rabaul but never mentioned anything was wrong. Radio seemed to work until then as she made a call to the Itasca "We must be on you but cannot see you but gas is running low" This seems likely she was within the area.

Even if the figures in the flight manual on fuel are high and she learns it right out she would still not even make it half way back to New Britain.
Take off 4180lts on board
Fuel Flow 150lts/HR gives her close to 28hrs Endurance

By the time she got to Howlong Island she had maybe and this is generous 9hrs left and it's more likely she had even less fuel then this on board as she transmitted fuel is low.


To say the wreck is in New Britain really means you need to ignore what she transmitted and she did a 180deg change of heading without even knowing it.

[sixtiesrelic]

You haven't mentioned any wind components.
There was a twin engine aeroplane found in the jungle with serial numbers taken down and checked and they fit with Amelia's L10.

That seems to me to be more realistic than theories.

[onetrack]

David Billings comes across as a typically thorough LAME, with attention to detail. However, I'm having trouble getting my head around the location of the wreck, seeing as Earhart's navigator was supposed to be one the worlds best, and had plans to commence his own navigation school.
The location is just so way off course of any likely location of Earharts L-10 Electra, that it's just a real stretch of "likely scenarios" to come to the conclusion that it is Earharts Electra.
What does surprise me, is that Billings doesn't appear to have done any research on any other L-10 Electras... or Electra-lookalikes... that went missing in that region, either pre-War, or early in the War.
Surely, any other similar big twin that went missing in the region, in that era, would have been recorded?
A single L-10 was supplied to the Japanese Navy Air Service for evaluation. Is there any record of what happened to that L-10?

Justin Taylans Pacific Wrecks website gives a fairly good rundown on the Earhart wild theories and stories... as well as the New Britain wreckage... and most conclusions are, that the WW2 veterans found only an engine, not a complete aircraft, on New Britain.
The PW website also mentions the possibility of any L-10 wreckage on New Britain, being one of the Dutch L-10's, captured by the Japs in Java.

Pacific Wrecks - Amelia Earhart Myths from the Pacific War (http://pacificwrecks.com/aircraft/electra/earhart/)

[sixtiesrelic]

The reason David Billings started thinking it could be Amelia's was from speaking to the blokes who found the wreck and asking pertinent questions like, "How high was the top of the fuselage when you stood on the wing to look inside?"
How many windows?
Was the interior painted... Yes a yellow.
Exterior painted ?... No.
The spinners were not domed which identified their older age.
Sounds like he spoke to a witness to me.
Of course there are assumptions, but we've watched enough "Truth is Stranger than Fiction shows" to realize anything's possible.
Talk to the man if you reckon he's wrong. He certainly talks a lot of sense.

[onetrack]

David Billings is typical of many "treasure hunters" who become somewhat obsessed with their "hunt"... and who look for clues that fit their ideas, rather than being very open-minded about clues, and doing research to verify statements as facts by having corroborating evidence.

This is a common approach by numerous police... and in particular, numerous detectives... who become obsessed with a particular scenario, and who then mold the facts, to fit their scenario, that they have decided, is the only answer.
It takes a particularly careful person not to become obsessed with a search result, that is already fixed in their mind. This fixation has led to the downfall of many. The 1941 wreck of HMAS Sydney is a classic.
The longer the search goes on, and the answer not found... the more obsessed many searchers become, that they have the only answer.

I have no doubt that David Billings is genuine, and highly knowledgeable in aeronautics. However, he is totally reliant in his theory, that EA only ever got to within 250 NM of Howland Island, and then turned back 180 degrees... and that stronger headwinds... the strength of which, he is only guessing at, played a big part in the whole exercise.
I find it hard to believe that he insists that EA could continue to broadcast positioning or advisory radio calls... yet not broadcast that she was turning back.

I have no doubt the veterans found something in the J of New Britain... but I think that DB will be disappointed if he ever does locate the wreckage again, that the veterans found.
It also seems very odd to me, that a serious investigation into the New Britain wreckage wasn't commenced, even if it was after WW2 ended.

After all, EA's disappearance is an enduring mystery that took the worlds attention in 1937, and for the 74 years since.
In 1945, EA's disappearance was still fresh in everyones mind, and I find it curious that he states that, "no-one even considered it could be EA's L-10, until the early 1990's".
If the Americans examined the tag, and concluded it was a civil registration wreck... then surely, someone, somewhere, should have asked the question... "Amelia Earhart?" :suspect:

Interesting recent forum discussion involving DB personally, and the EA search... Warbird Information Exchange • View topic - dr. robert ballard / amelia earhart's lockheed 10??? (http://www.warbirdinformationexchange.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=36501)

[sixtiesrelic]

"then surely, someone, somewhere, should have asked the question... "Amelia Earhart?"

The Aaussie soldiers DID at reunions. They didn't ask the right people.
The Yanks... maybe there were blokes asked each other too.
During the war ... they were interested in their little patch not civilian aircraft.

Maybe Amelia is on New Britain maybe she's not BUT serial numbers and unusual paint points to a good possibility.

[VH-XXX]

If you were a cop you'd call it circumstantial evidence at best.

The only thing linking the wreck is a tag that suggests that the engine is of the same type and similar build characteristics of the engine surrounds only.

The rest is pieced together based on a lot of assumptions.

[Exaviator]

6 m guard snake? They don't get that big. The don't do any guarding.

They may not do any guarding, but check this out for size:

http://i954.photobucket.com/albums/ae22/Exaviator/Snake.jpg

[onetrack]

That's just a poor harmless old jungle python. We got a few of them in 'Nam. I recall one we found being about 11½ feet (3.5M) long.

I was under the impression, the original BS "Earhart wreck" story, was talking about a 6M sea snake. One that size would truly fall into the old "sea-serpent" category.
Even the ABC news (Aust) has picked up on the story. Perhaps the ABC journos turn to PPRUNE on slow days... :ok:

Claims aviation pioneer Earhart's plane found in PNG - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) (http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/03/03/3154684.htm?section=justin)

I seem to recall that sea snakes aren't too big at all, but their venom is dynamite. I recall a prawning boat deckhand, off the Abrolhos, many years ago, was helping clean out the net... and the deckies found a smallish sea snake, in with the assortment of deep-sea critters, in the net.

Deckhand who found it, dragged it out, bashed it to death, with suitable epithets, such as "take that, you c$#&!"... and tossed the dead snake aside on the deck. The first-mentioned deckhand decided to take a look-see at said snake, up close and personal.

The snake had been bashed on the head, and its venom was oozing out. The bloke who picked it up for a close look-see, had a cut on his hand... and some of the venom got into the cut.

Within minutes, he "wasn't feeling too good"... and he promptly keeled over. Result was a panicky medevac to hospital, where he had to be administered a good dose of sea-snake anti-venene.
I understand this particular bloke has a healthy aversion to sea-snakes, right about now. :D

The docs reckoned he was one lucky lad. Apparently, in their opinion, if he'd been left without medical attention for much longer, he'd have been a goner.

[Exaviator]

I was refering to SEA SNAKES. They don't get to 6m and they don't guard gold.

Yes, having done a lot of diving in the South Pacific I am very familiar with the docile, but highly venomous Banded Sea Snake, but as the rest of the post is based on fantasy I though I would add the Python to the mix :)

[aviate1138]

A similar 'obsession mode' afflicts the Burmese Spitfire farmer doesn't it?