Skywagon1915:
The Airframe with the second engine on-wing (which is most probably the No.2) was hidden under vines and tree debris 30 yards further in from the engine. It is very dense jungle in there. We did not find out about the Airframe being there until 1994 (as I related earlier), up until then the story as related was that there was only an engine there.
That is why the U.S. Army was only informed about an engine as it appears Lt. Backhouse was under some sort of disciplinary action after they got back to base and we think the Patrol Warrant Officer made out the report and he did not know of anything but the engine.
Common sense says that if there is an engine loose on the ground, the rest of the aircraft will be nearby. Common sense also says that with the basically complete Airframe being there with the detached engine (most probably the No.1) close by, the angle of descent must have been steep. They reported a hole about 40 feet across, not a teardrop hole, just a hole. The breaks in the tree branches were reported to be blackened with age, they themselves thought the engine and the airframe had been there several years. The war in New Britain started on 23rd January 1942 so it had been just over three years since then. Earhart and Noonan had been lost for nearly eight years.
The Stbd,, wing was reported to be bent upwards and the cockpit smashed back which is indicative of a wingtip and nose hit simulaneously or one straight after the other as it hit the ground.
Not generally known is that the propellers could not be feathered and at fuel exhaustion the props would windmill and if the props start hunting from coarse to fine and back again and go out of synch. it would be a handful. A steep angle could indicate a spin entry or a straight out dive entry after loss of control. Putting the pitch levers into "Fine" will cause the props to go to Fine Pitch but the drag would be enormous
I have been to other wreck sites (B-24's) and when the airframe hits the trees in a glide angle or level angle the debris field is long and the engines break off and go rolling along the ground ahead of the airframe.
www.earhartsearchpng.com