Posted on 07/05/2017 1:25:49 PM PDT by Main Street
A newly discovered photograph suggests legendary aviator Amelia Earhart, who vanished 80 years ago on a round-the-world flight, survived a crash-landing in the Marshall Islands.
The photo, found in a long-forgotten file in the National Archives, shows a woman who resembles Earhart and a man who appears to be her navigator, Fred Noonan, on a dock. The discovery is featured in a new History channel special, "Amelia Earhart: The Lost Evidence," that airs Sunday.
Independent analysts told History the photo appears legitimate and undoctored. Shawn Henry, former executive assistant director for the FBI and an NBC News analyst, has studied the photo and feels confident it shows the famed pilot and her navigator. [Amelia Earhart mystery may have new clue in never-before-seen photo] Amelia Earhart mystery may have new clue in never-before-seen photo 6:25
"When you pull out, and when you see the analysis that's been done, I think it leaves no doubt to the viewers that that's Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan," Henry told NBC News.
Earhart was last heard from on July 2, 1937, as she attempted to become the first woman pilot to circumnavigate the globe. She was declared dead two years later after the U.S. concluded she had crashed somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, and her remains were never found. Amelia Earhart Amelia Earhart sits in her Electra plane cabin at the airport in Burbank, California, on May 20, 1937. Albert Bresnik / Paragon Agency via AP
But investigators believe they have found evidence Earhart and Noonan were blown off course but survived the ordeal. The investigative team behind the History special believes the photo may have been taken by someone who was spying for the U.S. on Japanese military activity in the Pacific.
Les Kinney, a retired government investigator who has spent 15 years looking for Earhart clues, said the photo "clearly indicates that Earhart was captured by the Japanese."
Japanese authorities told NBC News they have no record of Earhart being in their custody.
Related: The Search Is Still On for Amelia Earhart 80 Years After She Disappeared
The photo, marked "Jaluit Atoll" and believed to have been taken in 1937, shows a short-haired woman — potentially Earhart — on a dock with her back to the camera. (She's wearing pants, something for which Earhart was known.) She sits near a standing man who looks like Noonan — down to the hairline.
"The hairline is the most distinctive characteristic," said Ken Gibson, a facial recognition expert who studied the image. "It's a very sharp receding hairline. The nose is very prominent."
Gibson added: "It's my feeling that this is very convincing evidence that this is probably Noonan." A newly discovered photo shows a woman who resembles Amelia Earhart and a man who appears to be her navigator, Fred Noonan. National Archives
The photo shows a Japanese ship, Koshu, towing a barge with something that appears to be 38-feet-long — the same length as Earhart's plane.
For decades, locals have claimed they saw Earhart's plane crash before she and Noonan were taken away. Native schoolkids insisted they saw Earhart in captivity. The story was even documented in postage stamps issued in the 1980s.
"We believe that the Koshu took her to Saipan [in the Mariana Islands], and that she died there under the custody of the Japanese," said Gary Tarpinian, the executive producer of the History special.
"We don't know how she died," Tarpinian said. "We don't know when."
It is not clear if the U.S. government knew who was in the photo. If it was taken by a spy, the U.S. may not have wanted to compromise that person by revealing the image.
She changed her name to Stanley Dunham and headed for Kenya. The person who can identify these people in this photo is prolly really good at Where’s Waldo?.
Her navigator was a man and he refused to ask for directions.
If this is Earhart and Noonan (and it sure looks like it) then both the US and Japanese defense ministries would have had files. I would bet they still have them and won’t release same on the basis of protecting sources and methods. What “sources and methods’ would they be protecting? Any human source would have to be at least 98 years old, if alive and eighteen at the time of the photo. Any electronic source or other would have been outmoded decades ago.
I am waiting for confirmation from 4chan.
Lots of stories from Saipan, from Allied intel agencies, Marines, Navy pax, islanders, Japanese POWS (not many of them)....etc. Pretty darn sure she died on Saipan. She may have even been asked to do some “white intel” for the US GOV on her round the trip flight....maybe even caught with a name and number in her papers that matched Jap diplomatic intel. Dunno....just a hunch. The picture is pretty convincing. Big, white guy and boyish looking woman would be WAY out of place in the Marianas in 1937-1945.
Like Moses. Probably could’ve been fewer than 40 years wandering.
I’m waiting for the video.
But investigators believe they have found evidence Earhart and Noonan were blown off course but survived the ordeal.
...
Ridiculous. Their map was wrong. Their clock was improperly set. And the radio they were to use for homing in on the ship and communicating with it didn’t work. They were dead as soon as they took off.
Earhart was a daredevil more than a pilot and certainly not an aviator.
Looks like Fake News to me, or for the History Channel, Fake History. Kind of like when Easter comes around and they run fake history stories on Jesus.
Yeah, every time I get captured by the Japs they let me sit around on a dock.
Alex Jones says it was a false flag.
Supposedly, The US Navy intercepted Jap diplomatic cables and decoded it with proof she was alive. If the US acted on that intel, they would have turned their hand that we were decoding their most sensitive cables right before the war broke out.
Allegedly, the government knew she was alive and could do nothing...and ran with the "expendable" story that she died attempting to set the record.
That photo may very well be legitimate. If so, it was taken before they disappeared.
You know, you joke but Obama’s manufactured background has always struck me as someone who assumed another person’s identity.
Manufactured documents, ridiculous delay in long form birth certificate (3 years), sketchy narrative, “attendance” at places, sometimes where people don’t know him, constant pathological liar, etc.
LMAO!!
Until CNN has it “BREAKING!”, I do not believe it. /s
Fail. There is no way to declare any resemblance.
Is this a way to modify history? Because someone doesn’t like the story ending the way it did? Woman boldly sets out to fly and crashes.
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I’m waiting for confirmation by Shia LeBouf!
(unless he’s in jail, this week, of course). But I think that’s just common sense. /Naked Gun
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