Showing posts with label earhart's electra. Show all posts
Showing posts with label earhart's electra. Show all posts

Friday

COAST TO COAST tues 9-11 11 pm - 2 am

I think I might have been driving from SF to LA one night and in Fresno, tuned into George Noory's "Coast to Coast AM"  -- I know it was a show that was either out there, or almost out there, and when I got an email the other day asking if I'd like to come on the show and speak about "Flipside" - I thought - "well there you go."  Here's what they have on their site already: Tue 09-11  Navigating the Afterlife

But on the other hand, I tuned into the show a few nights ago, and listened to this guy describe something that really wasn't very believable.  And after George asked him a few questions, he took phone calls - and there were people calling in around the globe talking about the same problem this guy was having.  And at some point I realized I had gone from skeptic to skept....  I wasn't convince it was actually real, but I was convinced it was worth looking into...



Which is the experience you're going to have tuning in to listen to me speak about "Flipside: a Tourist's Guide on How to Navigate the Afterlife" on 9-11-12 from 11 am to 2 am east coast time.  I'm also going to talk about my film "Earhart's Electra: Eyewitness Reports on What Happened to Amelia Earhart's plane."


I don't think you have to tune into the site at that very moment - or go to your local radio show - they put all the shows up online, so if you want to wait a couple of years before hearing it, be my guest.

At this point, I'm not even sure I can stay up past midnight any more (ah, those days of all nighters in college!), and if you hear me breathing heavily into the phone, please think WAKE UP RICH.

I'm flattered to be invited, I think to myself - ok, having written for Variety, Premiere, Inc.com - having written and directed a number of feature films - what the heck am I doing on Coast to Coast?  I guess you'll have to tune in to fine out.


Best,

Rich

Saturday

Tighar at it again!


No, wait!  We didn't miss Amelia's plane.  We found a debris field near the island where we've been taking people to for the past 20 years!  Hold on!  Don't leave yet!

During the invasion of Saipan, US Marines found her plane.
I can't fathom why the media keeps buying this story. It's hilarious.

Consider the facts.  These trips to Gardner Isle have resulted in a comb, freckle goop, some turtle bones.  Nothing else. Really? You think that if she had actually been there, there might have been anything else?

There's been a deep sea expedition - millions have been spent on finding - nothing.  Oh wait. A debris field. "Could this be the resting place of Amelia Earhart's Electra?" Oh my!





And how did this come about? A photo dug out of the archives, of what may or may not have been Nessie, or a piece of an aircraft in 1937 in the water.  So the guy who took the photo - he didn't notice it, just happened to catch this landing gear bobbing in the water.  What could it be?

I don't even get the logic of what we're talking about here.  A photo of what may or may not be a landing gear in the water near Gardner? What the heck does that have to do with Earhart's Electra?  It's crazy.  There's not a single shred of any evidence, eyewitness or otherwise that she went anywhere near Gardner.

Wow.  Denial is not a river in Egypt.

and now - for some other details - actual eyewitness reports from people who saw her, saw the plane, and saw what happened to it.  C'mon guys - reporters - get out your pencils.  Do some homework, please!

Over 200 islanders saw her or Fred Noonan after 1937 in and around the Marshall Islands.  These people have been interviewed in books and on film. (Oliver Knaggs, many others, Fred Goerner, etc).

US Marines found her plane on June 18th, 1944 at Aslito airfield.  If you watch the film that's referenced here you will see them speak for themselves on camera.   They decoded the message that said they'd found her plane (and not some look alike plane) they guarded her plane, and they destroyed her plane.

Full stop.
Bob Wallack, US Marine, found her briefcase on Saipan in 44.


They buried it off the runway at Aslito airfield.  They covered it in dirt.  The aluminum has not deteriorated.  It is still there.  The runway hasn't changed. The documentary film "Earhart's Electra" SHOWS WHERE the spot on the runway is.  You want to become the person who found AMELIA EARHART'S AIRPLANE?  Don't go to Gardner.  Don't go undersea.  Take some equipment, get some permits and start digging where these US Marines claim they saw her plane, saw it destroyed on the runway.  It's within a fifty yard radius of the maps in this film. It's still there. Waiting for someone with a shovel. Get to work.

End of story.

Honor her memory properly. Tell the truth.
Have a nice trip, and don't forget to thank me at Oscar time.

UPDATE:

Well, here I am on Saipan and we are digging for AE's Electra.. I got a comment from Tom King, the chief researcher at Tighar about this post... from last August.  It's Feb 19th, I've been on Saipan for three weeks, our crew has been here for six.  I've interviewed 15 different islanders who saw a European woman, or an American flyer, or Amelia Earhart after 1937.  That goes along with the 200 or so that Fred Goerner, Oliver Knaggs, Don Wilson, etc have collected over the years.

Don't get me wrong.  I respect the science behind Tighar's research.  I just don't understand the logic of it.

Here's a reply I wrote to someone who sent me Tom King's report on their research about eyewitness reports on Saipan....

 I've been working on the eyewitness accounts for 30 years. What Tom King's report is missing is pretty fundamental - Devine was not the first GI to see the plane.  He may have been the first person to report it (and pretty adamantly as well, reporting to his congressman, calling the media and everyone he could find to do so after the war - not exactly someone out to make a buck from his account).  Devine has details in his account that are factually incorrect, but that doesn't make his entire testimony incorrect.

For example, in the official govt record on the reply to Devine's accusations, they claim because he inaccurately identified a fisherman's hut at Susupe, his entire account was suspect. (Special agent Patton's report from 1960)  I find this kind of reverse reasoning silly, and not worth examining.  It's not that Devine saw the plane on Aslito airfield - it's that six other GI's saw the plane.  Devine corroborated a number of details that the other GI's claimed.  So that makes his testimony worth examining.

The first people to see the plane at Aslito were Marines on June 19, 1944. I know that detail because the wire operator who decoded the message did so for Col. Clarence M. Wallace on that date.  As he said to me during his interview in Tupelo Mississippi "I remember it as if it was yesterday."  Combined with numerous other corroborated details he gives, I found his testimony, Douglas Bryce's testimony, Andrew Bryce's testimony, Robert Wallack's testimony and many others (as recounted in the second of Devine's book (with M. Campbell) where he solicited accounts from GI's who'd been there) credible and verifiable.

I'm here on Saipan interviewing people in their 80's who recall these events. Some are chomorro. Some are American veterans. And I've just found a Japanese man who claims he was here when she was executed.  I'm tracking down his details as we speak.

So we are left with - why ignore the eyewitness accounts?  It's not just Devine.  So far we have 12 GI's who claim they saw her Electra here.  Are they all liars?  Are they all besmirching their uniform by making up this fantastic detail that her plane was here?  To me it borders on the ridiculous that people would not follow up on these reports.  The only logical conclusion that I can get from people not following up on the over 200 eyewitness reports (from Georner, the priest's extensive interviews with Matilde Arriola and others, Don Wilson's many people, Oliver Knagg's filmed interviews in Mili, Jaluit, Mike Harris's interviews (always incorrectly ascribed to TC Brennan, who was just accompanying Mike) - the only possible reason people have not followed up on these is "egocentric americanism" - if a person doesn't speak English then their account must be suspect.

At least I hope that's the reason and not some more nefarious conspiracy to obfuscate the facts.  I choose not to follow that path, as my experience working with people in the defense dept, homeland security and CIA - (during my research for the film "Salt") is they love to solve a mystery as much as the next fellow.

I wish the folks at Tighar the best - I'm here on Saipan (EarhartOnSaipan) with a small crew with determination and a desire to know the truth.  We didn't come here with any preconceived idea about WHY she wound up in Saipan. We came because we wanted to follow the evidence.  We are following up on good reporting done by Fred Goerner, by Oliver Knaggs.  We have numerous eye witness accounts that have never been published as to her presence here on the island, we have numerous eye witness accounts by US soldiers who saw her plane, or came across other evidence she was here, we are currently looking at sites that have never been examined before.  And we'll let you know what we find.

Tuesday

In honor of Amelia Earhart's Birthday


It's the 115th anniversary of her birthday.
Google has noted it for the world to remember her.

HERE'S A LINK TO THE DOCUMENTARY AT AMAZON - OR YOU CAN VIEW IT VIA PAYPAL AT EARHARTMOVIE.COM

I'll note it by talking about my theory of what happened to her.  It's different from the details of what happened to her based on eyewitness accounts.  Those are other people's accounts of what happened to her,which I report in my documentary 'EARHART'S ELECTRA: Eyewitness Reports of What Happened to Amelia Earhart's Plane' - it's available through paypal.com on this page - on the right column:

But there's a difference between what happened and why it happened.
Let's start with what happened:


 

She left Lae New Guinea and headed towards Howland island.  The Coast Guard still had the old radio plan that was devised by Harry Manning (Elgen Long's book "The Mystery Solved"), but Harry Manning wasn't on the flight.  And according to Amelia herself (Conversation with Thai Pilots in "The Last Flight") she didn't know Morse Code, nor did Fred Noonan.  The plan that Harry devised had the Coast Guard communicating with her in Morse Code - no one changed that plan, even though Harry left the flight after her crash in Hawaii.

So that's a major screw up.  As she was headed towards Howland, she was off course - a recent theory has come forward that because of the international dateline (the site "DatelineTherory.com" is from a former NASA employee who has worked with the folks at Tighar who are currently searching for her plane in the wrong direction) she may have been already 250 miles off course - this woman plotted her course some 250 NW of where she was supposed to be, but running along the same line where she should have been.  Off the target by 250 miles, but on the same line the target was on.

According to eyewitnesses, her plane came down in Mili atoll - which is a further 200 miles NW of where she last reported her heading.  Is that possible for her to run out of fuel and fly 200 miles? There was also the report of winds that whipped up from a tropical storm - the simple answer is that could she have flown an extra 400 miles as she was running out of gas from Howland? No.  But if she was already off course by 250 miles - then yes, she could have made it.

But my argument in this area isn't whether it's possible or not - the argument is that people saw her plane come down. One was the queen of Mili atoll and she reported that fact to a newsman from South Africa, Oliver Knaggs, who wrote a book in the 1980's about it. (Hard to get the book, but I have a copy).  I also spoke to a cameraman who shot footage for that expeditiion - he said the footage is still in a vault in Florida, due to some kind of financial issue.  Film negative by and large goes into a vault - and should still be there.  But her words were recorded by this fellow and put into his book. 

Combine that with the book that has over 200 islanders who claim to have seen her and Fred Noonan after they disappeared - I have a copy of that book as well - some islanders say they saw "a white man and a white woman with short hair" - others say different descriptions - but the overall effect is that Amelia and Fred were seen after they disappeared.  Specifically eyewitnesses claim they were seen in Jaluit where the plane was taken, and later in Garapan where they were incarcerated.

The Electra made it to Aslito airfield where it was found on June 18, 1944. How do I know that? It's in the interviews.  The day they liberated the field they found the plane.  Everyone knew it was her plane, the GI who decoded the message from HQ wrote it down verbatim: "We have found Amelia Earhart's plane at Aslito airfield."  Not "we have found an aluminum electra that looks alot like earhart's plane" - or "we have found a replica of earhart's plane" - everyone who saw the plane recognized it.  It had only been 7 years since she disappeared, and it was arguably one of the most famous plane in the world outside of the Spirit of St. Louis.
 



So I've uploaded my film - you can purchase it for viewing by clicking on the link.

I am sending a copy to Amazon to put it up there as well, so in a few weeks it will be downloadable, searchable, etc.  Why did it happen? Remains to be seen. I have my own theories, but they're just that - not based on any evidence.... YET.

That's my contribution to Amelia's birthday.  Happy Birthday Amelia!

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