OK..she gutsed it on Gardner Is.(?)
Q . Which engine on the Electra do you start to supply power to the radio ??
So the tide comes in..and once the salt water goes through that engine ... thats it ??? if landed wheels up.
If 'wheels down' the engine being higher up and is useable for a few days to continue making calls... then what happens ?? Must have rather huge tides out there, if the other comments apply. You'd hardly sit in the a/c and wait to get washed over...you'd watch from the beach
If any aircraft lands on sand, the first incoming tide washes lose the sand around the wheels and it will sink further, with other tides, be locked in place. Battered by wind and waves over the decades will corrode away almost to nothing. We have seen this with P39s on the coral/sandy flats just off the beaches and inside the reef drop-off , Cape York, because one can compare the pictures take a few days after landing, wheels down, to what you find today..badly corroded wing set and engine sitting on the flat.
Nothing of any metal consequence has been found on Gardiner or just (washed) off the reef flat.
And somewhere in the drink...the first calls as stated sound more logical..."we have taken in water etc as per a slowly sinking aircraft. NO radio calls once afloat on the sea tho, except by battery. How long would those empty tanks have kept the Lockheed afloat ?? Life raft ??
There were many bogus call claims , listeners and publicity seekers..so its hard to know which? what.? who?
Meanwhile in back ENB there is a key to the mystery puzzle....which MUST be proved up.
And I wasnt able to find the' Australian ' article, to see what sort of a job they did. Any leads to ?