TIGHAR wants final say-so on ANY Earhart expeditions

They didn’t test a hypothesis, they created one out if thin air.

Aside from being a speck of solid land in the general area (necessary for any of the radio calls…none of which have been proved to come from the aircraft..to be real), I don’t believe there was anything to suggest that AE headed there, let alone made it to the island.

And rarely mentioned is the fact the US Navy over flew the island within a week and saw nothing.

Feel free to correct me.

I can’t believe that after all we’ve been through, all we’ve observed and despite nothing of any value having been produced, someone has the gall to kick this crap off again with a statement so preposterous as, “I’ve always appreciated TIGHAR for its work to test the hypothesis that Earhart and Noonan landed on Nikumaroro…..”

It’s like discussing Gary Glitter’s charity work.

Vahe.D – with all due respect, you are blindly accepting Gillespie’s contention that he was doing science, and that’s why it took so long to nail down the provenance of Artifact 2-2-V-1. As J Boyle pointed out, the three decade-plus saga of that piece of metal is much more complex. And could have been solved long ago, but that isn’t the way Gillespie works.

For a detailed timeline, please take a look at this page: https://mffowler.net/piece_of_earharts_aircraft.htm

“Recently reassessed…”.

You are giving the group too much credit…

Questions about the source of that piece of metal date back to almost immediately after it was found.

IIRC, There are manufacturing marks (printed in ink)  on the back which detail its composition, manufacturer, and other technical specifications which date it well past the build date for the Lockheed…or it subsequent repair after the crash landing in Hawaii.

Go to any aircraft repair shop and you’ll see what I mean. It’s pretty obvious.

It just took the group a couple of decades for the group to finally admit what sceptics had said all along… the piece was from a WWII aircraft.

Again, there are several old threads with deal in detail on this topic.

Several posters here (and on other forums) provided counter points for the groups claims.

I recall seeing charts on a forum addressing the chemical composition of the metal as well as the types of aluminum produced in the period. As I recall, the only people who thought it was from AE’s ship was the group.

Despite the metal itself and the rivet lines not matching, the group was pretty adamant for years that it came from the Purdue Lockheed. They examined Lockheeds on display and even travelled to a Idaho mountain to look for any wreckage from a airliner which crashed in the ’30s. Of course there was no substantial wreckage at the site, something that they could have determined with a couple of phone calls.

I got the impression the “expedition” was window dressing to make the group look like it was doing something. After all, travelling from Pennsylvania to Idaho (about 2000 miles)  had to be a fairly expensive proposition for something with little chance of success. No one was going to leave the intact back of a fuselage out in the open….especially with a world war since then which !want the metal would be worth.something.

To me, their efforts on the patch came across as someone using a jigsaw to modify pieces of a jigsaw puzzle… anything to make it fit. 🙂

Remember, they were trying to raise money, so they are hardly a impartial party. As such, their opinions need to be examined with a objective eye.

This forum has been covering this topic for 20+ years, you aren’t posting anything we haven’t already read..

If you are interested in the subject, you would do well to read the past threads and not just accept the group’s narrative.

When Ric Gillespie founded TIGHAR in 1985, his organization embraced Elgen Long’s hypothesis about Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan landing their plane on the water after running out of fuel. However, by 1988, TIGHAR changed its mind and began articulating its belief that Earhart became a female Robinson Crusoe by landing NR16020 on Nikumaroro.

I’ve always appreciated TIGHAR for its work to test the hypothesis that Earhart and Noonan landed on Nikumaroro and spent a day or so before they died of dehydration, especially as the aircraft aluminum skin catalogued as 2-2-V-1 by TIGHAR which was considered possibly from NR16020 has been recently re-assessed as belonging to a C-47.

https://tighar.org/Publications/TTracks/2022Vol_38/TIGHARTracks38_03_Se…

Ah yes, Mr. Myers contribution to the Nikumaroro “hypothesis,” TIGHAR’s beloved guess … oddly enough, Myers’ theory has not been thoroughly excoriated by TIGHAR’s executive director in his closed-to-the-general-public forums. Yet. Give him time, Gillespie seems to be slowing down a bit.

Another guy, Colin Taylor, did join TIGHAR so he could post his own theory in the closed discussion forums, with predictable results. The latest is here: https://tighar.org/smf/index.php/topic,2245.msg44953.html#msg44953

Hi Guys, just thought I would add this little article. Latest findings on Nikumaroro Island.

https://aircrashsites.co.uk/3rr/

Why would such photograps and affadavits still be ‘classified’ after over 80 years?  They have never surfaced because they don’t exist….

….so it isn’t like the story of allied troops finding an aircraft at all – that is something officially recorded, and it is only the identity of the aircraft which is uncertain.  There are enough clues within the reports of the troops concerned to make it a much more plausible theory than most of the others though 😉

The execution angle was an early offering in the “Where’s Amelia”  sweepstakes.

IIRC, the theory was she was held on Saipan.

Back in the ’60s a physic offered AE’s “own” lurid account of being held and raped by Japanese soldiers.

It’s a bit like the story of allied troops finding her aircraft..The fans of the theory have convenient (for them) reasons why the “truth” is kept hidden. SpUsually, some vast conspiracy.

I just came across a 1960 article that says Captain Paul Briand, assistant professor of English at the Air Force Academy in Colorado, said the Air Force had “classified” photographs and a group of affidavits from 72 eyewitnesses of the capture and execution of Earhart and Noonan.

https://rnzaf.proboards.com/thread/30314/japanese-amelia-earhart?

Guessing they have never surfaced?

plough said, “What puzzles me is why does anyone else want to go there? “

Because Gillespie is an extraordinarily good salesman – and that’s all he is.

“if TIGHAR/Gillespie has written Niku off, why does he come out so strongly against anyone else wanting to go there???”

What puzzles me is why does anyone else want to go there?    It was always a near certainty there was nothing to be found; even before tighar went there and found nothing!

If others such as Betchat and / Tom King go – they will then control the narrative- not him.

He can’t afford to go, and he knows everytime he goes he comes back empty handed and hence further undermining his claims that Earhart made it there and perished there – which she didn’t!

I find Gillespie’s attitude particularly vexing since he stated on Jan. 20, 2022, that “TIGHAR has no plans to return to Niku.” https://tighar.org/smf/index.php/topic,2203.msg44495.html#msg44495

So … if TIGHAR/Gillespie has written Niku off, why does he come out so strongly against anyone else wanting to go there???

TIGHAR – The International Group for NOT ONE Historical Aircraft Recovery!

I think Gillespie would be worried other expeditions would come to the strong conclusion theres never been a Lockheed 10 on Gardiner Island.

Unsurprisingly Robert Ballard found no metal structures or engines in the reef  and “debris” locations that TIGHAR had claimed its sonar scans and video’s had detected?

The man is fantastic, he probably believes his own bullshit, and what did he do about that P38 at Harlech?, thought he was going to retrieve it but nothing came of it in the end.

Gillespie using the word “victims” for people paying money to an outfit to take them to the (forsaken by most accounts) island is a bit rich considering others have seemingly said the same about him.

Again, he goes on the attack with slurs. It seems the tour company is providing a service. I doubt if they are taking advantage of anyone. They probably aren’t promising them they are going to find AE, FN and the Lockheed waiting for them.

Not very open minded (or in the spirit of scientific methodology, it seems) of one who wants to “sell” his theory of historic events.