https://youtu.be/23_loCUPoWs
Here's my latest promo for the book SHE WAS NEVER LOST: The Amelia Earhart Saga. At the end is footage of a hangar at Aslito airfield on Saipan. This footage appeared on my YouTube feed, so I watched it. I realized it was taken June 18th, 1944, THE DAY BEFORE US Marine EJ Nabers said he "decoded the message "we have found Amelia Earhart's airplane on Aslito airfield."
I'd seen the footage before, but this time I watched it with fresh eyes. There's an intact hangar with three planes inside. Two Japanese zeros and a third plane under camouflage. The two Zeros are facing outward - 10 feet high, 39 foot wingspan, 38 foot length - they both fit the hangar. But the third plane didn't so it is turned sideways facing the wall. The Electra was also 10 feet high, also had a 39 foot wingspan, but was 55 feet long.
(There's a typo in the promo where I mixed up length and wingspan on the Electra. It's 55 feet long)
Whatever aircraft this is, it's too big to face the same way as the Zeros. This footage was taken before they announced "finding her plane." (Nabers was ordered to guard the plane for 24 hours and many GI's corroborated his story - seeing him there - seeing the electra in this hangar. Later Nabers decoded a message saying they were going to fly it where multiple witnesses saw it, then decoded the message they were going to destroy it, which Nabers and others corroborate what he said)
So without further ado - here's the promo for the book, but it also includes footage of this mystery plane at the end. I've put in calls to my NTSB pals to see if they agree or disagree. But ... we'll ask Amelia on the flipside if this is accurate. I couldn't wait until Thursday to ask Jennifer Shaffer Take a look
