To all those who wish to help me in the endeavour to find the aircraft wreck seen in New Britain in 1945...
Expedition plans are afoot !
I got back from Port Moresby last Wednesday and in a week's time I leave for Moresby again and then on to Singapore to look after another Fokker F100 aircraft on maintenance. I had planned to go back to the jungle around this time but the last aircraft took longer than planned and the "boss" had already asked me to do this next one so I am committed. The maintenance check should end in September and we will be going again in October. Date yet to be fixed....
I now have two Metal Detectors. One for surface searching and one for deep searching. I now know that it is buried and I also know roughly the area where it is buried and the area fits the description given to me by the ex-Lieutenant who is "still breathing" in Perth W.A. My information say it is buried by the side of a track and we know where they are.... After the first trip last year, I went back in alone and scouted around with the local people when I heard the news that it was buried in late 1996 or early 1997, just before logging started in there again.
As to funding, the East New Britain Project has now been put on "Indiegogo", which is a public funding website and can be seen at:
Let's Look For Amelia Earhart's Plane -- Indiegogo or by simply opening up the website
www.indiegogo/projects and doing a search for Amelia Earhart.
It only went up three days ago. There is a short video on there from our 2006 expedition and one shot is of team member Jason in his tent with the rain pouring down and you can hardly hear him. That day's rain was the worst we have experienced in there, the camp was very nearly flooded.
The campaign for funding will last three months and we are asking for US$100,000.00 this is also to be able to produce a short film of our endeavours when we do find it. There are links to YouTube and to Facebook which also has some pictures.
I do not expect the funds to grow at a rapid rate and then I only expect that funds will trickle in until Gillespie of TIGHAR comes back empty handed.... I say that tongue in cheek because there will be the "inevitable" twist to his story which somehow will keep Tighar in the public eye.... Maybe another turtle bone !
The team in Los Angeles who are assisting me put the show on the road and I am grateful to them for that.
Regards,
David Billings