Amelia….bones sent for DNA testing.

Now, now, Dave, you’re supposed to accept Ric Gillespie’s word for it that he’s solved the Earhart mystery. Using his version of “science.”

But a mystery TIGHAR is still collecting donations for. Along with the P-38 in Wales. And Glenn Miller’s airplane. And the White Bird. Did I miss anything? Oh, right, operating costs! How could anyone possibly forget that???

TIGHAR is brilliant. It’s the Fat Lady carnival scam — but they never have to provide the Fat Lady! Send them all your money!

JBoyle, yes, I think it’s safe to say that ANYONE who goes poking around Nikumaroro without TIGHAR either overseeing or participating/hijacking the effort can be said to be “disrupting the group’s dogma.” Which I have no problem with. In real science, hypotheses are always open to challenge, new data, and new conclusions. Which is not the way TIGHAR practices what it calls “science.”

If the skull fragments don’t turn out to be Earhart’s (and I’m not even remotely optimistic they will), then we will never, ever hear about it. NatGeo hates to admit failure as much as any other high-dollar, publicity-driven organization.

Similarly, if the land expedition data and artifact analysis doesn’t find anything definitive (my money is still on DNA), then likewise, we will never, ever hear about it.

Which will, unfortunately, leave TIGHAR free to declare the mystery solved due to its 30-plus years of relentless “scientific investigation.” Which it is still accepting donations for on its website as of today …

So it’s not certain that the bones being tested are the same remains found and examined before the war?

TIGHAR has spent years saying they are AE’s and libeling the doctor (who is well remembered in the area) for having the nerve to suggest they weren’t AE’s…or even a woman….an this disrupting the group’s dogma.

Watched the programme. The skull fragments did not match when superimposed on a photo of Amelia and they did not get any DNA.  Have to agree with MFowler that the island had its fair share of violence & slaughter. The fragmented skull remains are not from Nikumaroro.

Ian

Prediction – this is going to amount to nothing. You have to remember what NatGeo was facing at this point. Bob Ballard was coming up empty at Nikumaroro with his high-tech underwater search, the land search was visually unexciting (and apparently unproductive) … they desperately needed SOMETHING to spin this out into a two-hour TV special that would garner large ad revenues.

What better than the high drama of rooting through various boxes of old bones? Deep in the dusty archive of the national museum? And finding, providentially, the potential Rosetta skull in the very … last … box …

It’s a female skull, with an unknown provenance, on an island that saw more than its share of violence and slaughter during WWII (and where soldier’s remains from both sides are still being discovered).

Only if it turns out to be Amelia