Comments on: Scientists Find Clues Behind the Mystery of Amelia Earhart’s Disappearance

By: Max

Max — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 18:03:12 +0000

Here’s my constructive criticism Brookes;
Flying is unnatural for humans. It’s a privilege and a wonder. It’s a period of time we chose to sit in an aluminum cigar case and *defy gravity* for extended periods of time! The navigator is there for a reason. The pilot in command is supposed to have good judgment.

Earhart put aside good judgment on a number of occasions. If you’re going to defy gravity, don’t get rid of your comm gear to lighten the load. Choose something else. If you’re going to fly over water – any amount of water, on any leg of your trip – pack the raft and emergency gear. No matter how much it weighs. And practice on the machine in which the stunt will be performed.

We should NOT be lionizing her. She and Noonan died by her hand. She was NOT a good pilot.

By: Taylor Jessen

Taylor Jessen — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 02:46:09 +0000

In 1998 I worked on a doc for the History Channel called “The Mysteries of Amelia Earhart” that was co-produced by TIGHAR. I had to log hours of footage of these nutjobs wandering various South Pacific islands, digging. Even for a basic cable documentary, their standards for evidence were embarrassing. Here, they noted, was a shoe. And this bone, maybe human, maybe – female! Fortunately we also got to interview Elgen Long, a rigorous and thorough researcher with a hell of a lot of evidence. His book “Amelia Earhart: The Mystery Solved” surveys the Earhart mythology and then methodically strips it all away. Basically Amelia and Noonan had to make the last leg of their trip by dead reckoning, and the method contained a margin of error big enough to miss Howland Island, and they did.

By: Don

Don — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 20:07:57 +0000

Strewth Max. Did she spill your beer or something?

By: Sarah

Sarah — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 19:24:11 +0000

Here’s a wee extract from Cracked.com’s thoughts on the subject:

We’ve pretty much had the Earhart mystery solved ever since partial remains were found on an island… in 1940. 70 years ago – four years after she vanished.
To be fair, half of the bones were carried away by giant crabs, and the rest have since been lost because nobody thought it was important or even curious that a skeleton should turn up on an island just southeast of where Amelia freaking Earhart was going. Neither did it strike a chord that the remains turned out to be those of a white woman with Earhart’s measurements, or that they were found alongside a pocket knife, a broken cosmetics jar, a piece of glass from an airplane windshield and the same exact type of navigational system she had been using.

By: Brookes

Brookes — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 14:29:13 +0000

Max, you’re a wanker. Do you have to be so abusive? If you don’t have anything constructive to say about the article, then don’t just pour your bile out – go and do something constructive.

My two pennies: interesting article, nice to hear the legends aren’t dead even if it isn’t my favourite and belies most common sense. Theories are always interesting, and evidence for or against them more so.

By: roz

roz — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 13:18:26 +0000

TIGHAR is as great at promoting itself as amelia was–prolly nobody would ever have looked fer fred noonan!

By: Ian

Ian — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 09:20:12 +0000

For a moment there, in that pose, I thought she was modelling an inappropriately low-cut top for flying.

By: Denise Cox

Denise Cox — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 09:01:27 +0000

Apparently there was a skeleton and various artifacts found on the island in 1940…

http://news.discovery.com/history/amelia-earhart-resting-place.html

By: Max

Max — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 06:48:50 +0000

Oh for crying out loud. This twit again!?
Earhart was a temperamental, vacuous contrarian and a fool; married to an egotistical PR man who was more interested in publicity and getting his wife in the history books than for her safety.

Noonan was a masterful navigator but also an alcoholic. He was resisting his base inclinations just fine until his trip with Earhart when she purposefully chose to discount his calculations and directions.

They survived her stupidity a few times but finally ran out of fuel and ended up in the ocean a few miles from the island to which he was trying to direct her.

She did not grow old on an abandoned island, she was not eaten by cannibals, she is not a hero or a role model. She died at sea, either in the crash or by drowning.