World of Mysteries - In Search of Amelia Earhart

Papua New Guinea a remote island in the vast Pacific so impenetrable is this jungle island that only the most adventurous travel here this untamed land holds many secrets it plays host to the greatest aviation mystery of all time in 1937 Amelia Earhart took off from Papua New Guinea then vanished without a trace now her true fate is finally emerging armed with new technology experts are going back to the Pacific to find the queen of the skies international travel has never been easier thousands of aircraft girdle the globe guided to their destinations by satellite navigation systems pick any place on earth and it's only a plane ride away it would never occur to us that our pilot might get lost but in the pioneering days of aviation when Amelia Earhart was flying getting lost was an occupational hazard when she opened up the air routes we fly today she did so with little more than a compass to guide her in 1932 flying across the States was big news especially when the pilot was a woman Amelia Earhart's daring and charm made her a media celebrity people hungered for every detail of this remarkable woman's life you mean to eat yeah even the drink well I carried some water of course because my cockpit is very warm and I carried a sandwich in case I didn't eat it though I carried some hot chocolate and the old reliable tomahto juice what kind of sandwich was it when she became the first woman to fly the Atlantic New York City gave her a hero's welcome in an age when most people had never seen an airplane flying across an ocean was like going to the moon in 1937 Amelia announced her most ambitious project to fly around the world contemplated cores covers about 27,000 miles it will be the first flight if successful which approximates the equator the first two thirds of the flight were successful a month after she left the US Amelia reached the Pacific island of Papua New Guinea California was only three days away but she never made it her final takeoff on July the 2nd 1937 was captured on film this was the last ever confirmed sighting of Amelia and her navigator Fred Noonan they took off then simply vanished their destination was Howland Island 2500 miles to the east a tiny speck of land in the vast Pacific Ocean a ship called the AtTask was positioned at Howland Island to help guide Amelia in by radio but the ship lost contact with her 20 hours into the flight with an estimated two hours of fuel still remaining Amelia's radio went dead the AtTask began to search the waters around Howland Island thinking Amelia might have crashed into the ocean but it found no trace the only other landfall apart from Howland lay 300 miles to the south the hope was that Amelia had become lost and headed for the Phoenix islands with her remaining fuel President Franklin Delano Roosevelt ordered the biggest air and sea search operation in US history the Phoenix chain consisted of eight largely uninhabited islands the Navy searched for two weeks but found no trace of the Flyers finally the search was abandoned Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan were declared missing presumed dead the greatest woman pilot of all time had disappeared and history's greatest aviation mystery had begun for over 60 years Amelia's fate has been shrouded in myth according to one myth Amelia had been spying for Roosevelt over Japanese islands in the Pacific some claimed she had been taken captive by the Japanese and later beheaded but the most enduring theories Center on the Phoenix islands the claim is that Amelia did make it there but was somehow missed by the Navy searched in one version she lived with a fisherman on an island paradise but investigation has shown this to be pure fiction in another version she was alone castaway on one of the islands but no castaway could have survived here for long the islands are beautiful but deadly over the last decade six expeditions have been mounted to the islands to search for signs of Amelia the most compelling evidence that she was here are remnants of a woman's leather shoe from the 1930s of a type sometimes worn by the aviatrix but the evidence doesn't fit the shoe was two sizes too big and probably belonged to a later settler a skeleton was also found near the water but analysis of the bones proved inconclusive Amelia's body was never found there is no evidence that Amelia made it to the Phoenix islands with apparently two hours of fuel remaining she disappeared off the face of the earth nobody has yet come up with an answer to the mystery until now a team of professionals has been sifting fact from fiction armed with fresh clues and new technology they claim to have finally solved the Earhart mystery we have a high degree of confidence that we know the area where the aircraft is located we're extremely confident that we can find this plane we're gonna bring Amelia back to life she's gonna be a new hero that America is gonna rediscover Amelia Earhart came of age as the Golden Age of aviation was getting into swing in 1920 Amelia went to an airshow in Long Beach California where stunt pilots showed off their skill and daring in front of stunned audiences she fell head-over-heels in love with a spectacle amelia was desperate to try it herself she wrote in her diary finally one day came the chance to ride by the time I got two or three hundred feet off the ground I knew I had to fly flying was seen as unfit for ladies but Amelia was no ordinary young woman she took a job as a truck driver to finance her pilot certificate flying had become her passion Amelia took to flying because she wanted adventure she had a terrible dread of living what one would call a nine-to-five life her life changed forever in 1928 when she met wealthy publicist George Putnam he was looking for a woman to be the first to fly the Atlantic but it was really a gimmick Amelia would only be going as a passenger in an age when flying was a man's world Amelia was big news overnight a celebrity was born this is the plane in which Amelia Earhart first entered the record books as a pilot in her own right in 1928 she became the first woman to fly solo across the US and back now an admirer retraces her steps antique aviation buff dr. Carlene Mendieta is recreating the original coast-to-coast flight she's taken time out to pilot this classic biplane on its epic journey Mendieta hopes to gain insight into Amelia's skill as a pilot and navigator some modern pilots have questioned that skill and suggested it may have been a factor in her 1937 disappearance but no one questions Amelia's role as a true pioneer she was definitely ahead of her time many of her own family members wouldn't speak to her they basically disowned her because they felt that things that she was doing were I'm feminine and totally unladylike and not acceptable so she she really fought the odds to be able to do the things that she did Amelia bought the plane from English aviatrix Mary Heath only nine were ever made and this is the sole survivor an Avro avian from 1927 restored by historic aviation calm the body of the plane is wood and canvas its top speed is only 85 miles an hour Amelia took off from Rye New York on August 31st 1928 recreating the flight was to prove an education from Mendieta flying this old machine is tough work even for an experienced pilot it is a tiring airplane to fly because it's what we call inherently unstable it's the technology of the 20s it has a lot of adverse yaw meaning the nose wants to swing around you're having to constantly mind the rudder and in turbulence the plane is wants to go everywhere so it's a job to actually fly the airplane following Amelia's route Mendieta flies south over the Hudson River to Pittsburgh from there it's Illinois Texas Arizona and Los Angeles then back again over the Midwest via Chicago to Rye New York Mendieta navigates with only a road map and compass just as Amelia did in 1928 when Amelia made this flight she experienced engine trouble and even had to crash-land a couple of times a regular occurrence during Aviation's Golden Age it took three weeks of near-constant flying from Mendieta to complete the marathon journey she's left with no doubts about Amelia's courage and skill I know there's kind of a common theme that Amelia Earhart wasn't much of a pilot and less of a navigator but I would dare anyone who says or thinks that to get in this airplane with just a compass and a road map from 1928 and make the trip that we just made so I think she was a heck of a pilot and even probably better navigator Amelia completed her historic flight on October 29th 1928 she was becoming a household name thanks to the publicity machine of her now husband George Putnam increasingly he was behind her every move in 1932 they decided that she would go for glory she would try to fly the Atlantic solo in a new Lockheed Vega airplane 25 people had died since Charles Lindbergh's crossing five years earlier with only a compass to guide her she simply pointed the Vega towards England and took off her mechanic gave her a one in a hundred chance Amelia Earhart took off from Newfoundland on May 20th 1932 to fly to England but a series of storms along the way pushed her north instead of hitting London England she touched down 400 miles away in Londonderry Ireland that she made it at all was a testament to her skill and courage the flight confirmed her as the queen of the skies when Amelia made that first trip alone over the Atlantic I can remember my mother beaming at me and saying isn't that grand and I suddenly thought there were a whole lot of American women that would have loved to Dunst to have an adventure of some sort Amelia Earhart was now the most famous woman aviator of all time over the next five years she rewrote the record book flying faster higher and further than any other woman and most men by 1937 there were few records left to break so she decided to go for the biggest flight of all she bought a new plane the most advanced of its kind in the world a Lockheed Electra the Electra was a twin-engined commercial airliner the first all-metal plane ever built Amelia planned to fly around the world at its greatest circumference the Equator on March 17 1937 she headed west from California to Hawaii on the first leg of her global Odyssey but the next day she crashed on takeoff from Honolulu Amelia blamed mechanical failure others blamed pilot error she returned by sea from Hawaii vowing to repair the Electra and start again but things went from bad to worse her radio operator Harry Manning left the team he later confessed he had lost confidence in Amelia's skill as a pilot instead she would fly with Fred Noonan he was an expert navigator with Pan American but he was no expert with a radio and he had a reputation as a drinker Fred Noonan left a pan-american under a cloud but which had to do with drinking he was an expert navigator but nevertheless they they did fire the entire project was mortgaged to the hilt in order to keep it alive Amelia was pushed into a punishing fundraising schedule she was pushed beyond a limit in the last year her photographs show shadows under the eyes a face drawn preparations for the flight suffered Amelia was unfamiliar with the Electra's radio equipment but her training session turned into yet another photo shoot the Electra was fitted with modern direction-finding equipment but she was not comfortable with this technology and it's doubtful if it was ever fully functional to make matters worse neither Emilia nor Fred Noonan could use Morse code to save weight she ditched her Morse key and perhaps even her life raft navigation would rest with Noonan the world flight finally restarted on June 1st 1937 on the first attempt they had flown west from California but by now the trade winds had reversed so this time they went east from Miami they made their way down through Central and South America at natal in Brazil they headed out across the Atlantic reaching Africa at Dakar they flew over the deserts of Central Africa landing at a Saab by the Red Sea from there it was on to Karachi and then down into Southeast Asia at Singapore after a short hop to Darwin in northern Australia it was across the sea to the town of leh on the northeast coast of Papua New Guinea the flight across the island was a treacherous one Amelia had to halt the Electra over the mountains dodging Peaks which lay hidden in the clouds she recorded the trip in her daily telex to George Putnam it was a fairy story sky country peopled with grotesque cloud creatures who eyed us with ancient wisdom as we threaded our way through its shining white valleys but the mountains of clouds were only dank grey mist when we barged into them that was healthier than playing hide and seek the unknown mountains of Terra Firma below finally when dead reckoning indicated we had traveled far enough we let down gingerly the thinning cloud obligingly withdrew we found lay sat down by the time Amelia reached lay the trip was taking its toll on her health she was exhausted she was I think a physical and emotional wreck by the time she arrived in New Guinea to make matters worse she and Noonan argued that evening Noonan went off to a bar Emelia telex tottenham that she was experiencing personnel problems meaning that Noonan had started drinking again eyewitnesses said that he ordered several large whiskeys and was obviously drunk it has been suggested that Noonan's drinking may have been a factor in the impending catastrophe though it's impossible to prove the next day's departure was canceled due to weather and minor technical problems for the first time since leaving Miami Amelia had a chance to do some sightseeing from ground level she telex putnam i turned into a beautiful Coconut Grove before a village entrance the village was built more or less around a central open plaza all huts were on stilts n' underneath the dogs and pigs hold forth in the village were several native women almost the first I have seen as women here are very much out of evidence I wish we could stay here peacefully for a time see something of this strange land Papua New Guinea is a land of contrasts even the opening of a minor road is cause for celebration yet this tribal land is one of the world's oldest aviation centers the island's gold mines relied on aircraft to move men and equipment around the Highlands for Amelia Earhart lays main attraction was its thriving aviation industry and the expertise of its pilots Richard lei is one of the top pilots in Papua New Guinea or PNG as it's known to the locals he's flying in mountains that Amelia crossed in 1937 Amelia Earhart would have made it to have been a good pilot to fly across PNG especially saying that she hadn't done it before the way the change is very rapidly in the tropics and it can be quite awesome if you're not used to it it was this local knowledge that Amelia sought from pilots in 1937 these jungle covered mountains are so impenetrable that the only way to really get around is by air we're going to replace at the Finisterre mountains and there's a lot of people live up there there are a few roads going in a little way but you know mostly they've got to fly or walk and a lot of them still walk it's a 20-minute flight but a two-week walk from leh to casa number village the only drawback with the flying is the landing do you have one carrot landing and that's all there is to it if you don't get your approach right you're going to you're going to have to go ahead with it anyway and if you really don't get it right you're going to lose the airplane so we get used to flying into places where we've got apps one shot one shot only at landing we're working here over this airfield now we've just left 5,000 feet the airfield is around 4,000 feet I'm going to fly over the top make sure that there's nothing on it in the way of dogs or pigs or anything like that and I'm going to do a lift and second at about midway across there's a big ravine man-bat Midway across that we will be committed to land and this place is a bit rough so we'll jump around a bit but under that were you we're committed to land now you in casa Nambe the weekly landing is a big event richard ferries people and products between mountain villages and coastal towns without aviation the economy and society of Papua New Guinea would be thrown back to the Stone Age these villagers may never have seen a car but they travel by plane without batting an eyelid even though this runway ends abruptly at a thousand foot drop Richard takes risks that pilots elsewhere wouldn't dream of but even he is daunted by the flight to Howland Island that Amelia Earhart attempted in 1937 if somebody had asked me even now to fly to Howland Island from here with the equipment that she had including the navigator I would be very very reticent I wouldn't be happy about that at all with GPS navigation it's a different matter it's much easier to die do you set one of these GPS is up I could set that up here and I could find a tennis court in the middle of Spain without ordering course or anything and it take me there and it placed me within 30 meters about tennis court that's how good they are without such technology finding Howland Island would be Amelia's ultimate test on the eve of the flight she reflected upon the task ahead not much more than a month ago I was on the other shore of the Pacific looking westward this evening I look eastward over the whole Pacific those fast-moving days which have intervened the whole width of the world has passed behind us except this broad ocean I shall be glad when we have the hazards of its navigation behind us 48 hours later she had vanished for over 60 years the myth has endured that Amelia's somehow made it to the Phoenix islands 300 miles south of Howland but now this myth can finally be exposed at Lake Tahoe Nevada Elgin and Murray long have never believed that Amelia Earhart had enough fuel to reach the Phoenix islands Elgin is a retired Navy pilot in his younger days he flew regularly to Howland Island he and Marie have amassed a huge archive about Amelia's final flight they know she left lay with 1,100 gallons of fuel this should have given her plenty of time to find Howland Island nothing in their research could explain why Amelia ran out of fuel two hours before she should have done then they struck gold in the shape of a document called the cheetah report the proof was finally found up in Vancouver British Columbia of all places it was an eight page single-spaced typewritten report which gave us all the evidence all the proof we needed to solve the Earhart mystery once and for all Eric Chater was manager of Guinea Airways stationed at Lai he was the only person in radio contact with Amelia during the first half of the flight to Howland the evidence that was in the cheetah report was a smoking gun that was that gave us the airspeed and the ground speeds that be our hearts flying the winds that she had aloft what altitude she was flying at and what airspeed this tells us her fuel consumption that's why even though we all suspected that she should have had another two hours of fuel remaining she ran out of fuel at 20 hours and 13 minutes because of the flight that she had to make thanks to the shada report we can now reconstruct with some certainty the entire 2,500 mile flight across the Pacific at precisely 10:00 a.m. on July the 2nd 1937 Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan climbed into the Electra and taxi to the end of this runway Amelia's fuel tanks were full to the brim she had to take that airplane off and she was so heavy once she passed a halfway point there'd be no way she could ever stop it she wasn't sure she was going to get airborne to the very end of the runway when she pulled back on that stick that airplane either had to fly or they were going to die on lookers hearts were in their mouths as they watch the Elektra belly-flop towards the ocean only the ground effect a cushion of air beneath the plane kept it from ditching after a long struggle amelia got the Electra's nose up and was airborne they were on their way Amelia could have been forgiven for thinking that the worst was over forty-five minutes later she flew over the eastern tip of Papua New Guinea and out over the Pacific Ocean she would never set foot on land again Amelia's first message to Eric shader came after 4 hours and 18 minutes she was on course and flying at the correct altitude and speed for maximum fuel economy but in the South Pacific the weather can change in an instant five hours into the flight a storm blew up to avoid it Amelia was forced to climb over the mountains of Bougainville Island three passing through cumulus clouds this was the last time she would sign off with her cheery trademark everything okay Emilia had to haul the Electra way above its optimum cruising altitude the climb used a massive amount of fuel then came another blow after seven hours she reported that she was fighting a 25 mile-per-hour headwind she had calculated her fuel consumption on the forecast 12 mile per hour headwinds she had no choice but to gun the engines to compensate at this increased speed she was using almost ten percent more fuel per hour the situation was potentially disastrous after 10 hours they spotted a ship they assumed it was the Ontario positioned at the halfway point as a marker but it was probably the USS myrtle bank 40 miles further north if uncorrected this small error would become a huge problem over the course of a thousand miles now the role of the AtTask anchored at Howland Island became critical the plan was that the Atascadero would take a bearing on Amelia's voice and guide her in Leo Bell arts received her first week message sixteen hours into the flight bell arts transmitted the first of many messages but it became clear that whilst he could hear Amelia she couldn't hear him either she was operating her radio incorrectly or it was malfunctioning Itasca decay a kqq / Bell arts tried using Morse code but it floated off into the ether Amelia had left her Morse code equipment behind to save weight at sunrise on July 2nd she was only 100 miles from Howland Island but still she had not heard from Bell arts she sent an anxious message hoping he could hear her and use her signal to fix her exact position she whistled into the mic but bell arts could not get a fix the radio direction finder had also malfunctioned by now amelia was exhausted she'd been flying for almost 18 hours now only Fred Noonan could get them to Howland but the weather was still against them on a clear day they could have flown high and seen Howland from 50 miles away or more but cloud north of the island forced them low to 1000 feet hey take you cute we must be see you at 1000 feet their visibility plunged 220 miles even so with enough fuel they would almost certainly have found Howland but the storm at Bougainville and the constant headwind had drained their gas tanks time was running out 20 hours and 13 minutes after leaving lay Amelia sent a last desperate message Amelia had no time to repeat the message as she reached over to crank the transmitter the engine coughed at asking a kha q q do you read over unless the Elektra is found we can only speculate as to whether they drowned or died on impact but we do now know that they are at the bottom of the Pacific somewhere in the vicinity of Howland there's no other land shoal sandbar nothing no Rock unknown island or anything within 325 miles of Howland Island well if she's running out of fuel and she was in the middle of a transmission that she never completed she must have landed in the water because there's nothing but water around there the question still remains where precisely in the ocean did the Electra go down elgyn long recorded an interview with Leo Bell arts before he died bell arts information unraveled the mystery a little further when she fell Arts heard her on the radio she was so loud then he went over to the door and looked out expecting to see the airplane up above him when he didn't see her he actually said he closed his eyes and remember cocking his ear he thought he'd hear that's how close he thought she was just from the strength of her radio signals those radio signals are the key to pinpointing where Amelia went down Cedar Rapids Iowa home to ham radio enthusiast Tom Vinson he's in his basement surfing the airwaves like he's been doing since he was a boy I became interested in amateur radio when I was just in junior high school and I would sit up at night and I would tune in like Radio Netherlands or Radio Moscow and it would glow from the tubes you could hear these signals from all over the world and I thought wow that's just amazing Vinson is bringing his skills as a radio enthusiast to the search for Amelia Earhart using a radio like this is really a little more complicated than just picking up a phone or getting on the Internet that's part of the problem that Amelia Earhart had because she really didn't use the radio all that much there was new technology back then an airborne radio was very new Tom calls up a team of radio hams who have been studying Amelia's transmissions das in y0v around the day rod yeah in y0v rods Bloxom is the team's systems engineer and the brains behind the operation there's nothing he doesn't know about radio Roger Hatcher is the transmissions expert no one knows more than he does about the Electra's radio capacity Charlie Snodgrass is the team's navigator he used to guide c-130s into Antarctica using the same method as Fred Noonan Tom Vinson put the team together he believes they are close to pinning down the Electra's precise location I think we have the best chance of anyone that's ever looked forward to find her they may be amateurs in their spare time but these guys are professionals at the top of their field they all work at Rockwell Collins one of America's top communications corporations when the Earhart case first hit his desk Vinson could never have foreseen the enormity of the task ahead this project would became way out of hand here we are three years later thousands of hours of analysis and research NAND everyone's totally addicted this is one of the greatest mysteries of the 20th century and to be part of it to become involved in it was really exciting the team's biggest clue was the AtTask his radio log leo bell arts had assigned signal strengths to each of Amelia's transmissions grading them from one to five the further the Electra was from the AtTask the weaker its signal as the Electra got closer the signal strength increased the team would discover how far Emilia was from Howland if they could convert her final signal into nautical miles they ran an experiment rod blocked some built receivers and transmitters to replicate those of the Electra and the AtTask oh we need a hard number for s5 once we know how strong the signal was we can analyze how far away the airplane was that produced that saving we had to first simulate Earhart's voice we have from lia Tasca logs the things she said they played a male his simulated voice through a receiver and by adding static produced a range of different signal strengths and we use this as a library to quantify just exactly what s 5 s 4 and s 3 so forth means in the tasks along the team also needed to know how the metal structure of the Elektra affected the transmission of Amelia's voice Roger Hatcher spent painstaking weeks creating a precise computer model of the Electra minut adjustments were then made to the library of signals finally the signals were played to the team they assigned signal strengths to each transmission mainframe computers at Rockwell Collins have been working overtime to process the information the computers crunched the numbers and came up with a figure for s5 the team believes it now knows exactly how far amelia was from Howland Island when she made her final transmission they have been able to retrace her route as she approached Howland their findings show that Noonan was flying a ladder search pattern in those last desperate minutes tragically if they hadn't run out of fuel the last leg of their search would have taken them straight over Howland to find Amelia Earhart's aircraft would just be the greatest feeling of elation because we would then be a part of solving the greatest mystery of the 20th century where is Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan where's that aircraft located this man believes he'll be the first to know he's a deep-sea treasure hunter working with the radio team and Elgin long he specializes in underwater recovery missions Nauticus have an impeccable deep-sea salvage record the key to their success is a unique computer program called rina rina allows Nauticus to retrace the last movements of any ship or plane lost at sea a real edge in finding things underwater begins with reen allegation you can have the best operations team and the best equipment but if you're not looking in the right place you won't find it to find where a meal you went down the Rina program will recreate her entire journey in the problem of reconstructing Amelia Earhart's disappearance there's a parallel in driving let's say you're driving to work but you're familiar with you know the distance you know how long it usually takes but on any day you may be stopped by a light a train crossing or something that you can't predict ahead of time and this will cause your time to vary and to have some uncertainty this is a problem with the Amelia Earhart flight we don't have complete knowledge of everything she did Rena takes all available data about headwinds fuel consumption and radio signals and Rae plots Amelia's route a high-probability search area is the end result head of operations at Nauticus is Tom Detweiler he'll operate the underwater machines that will search for the Electra 17,000 feet below the surface of the Pacific trying to position an underwater vehicle over something on the bottom with 17,000 feet between you and the vehicle is like standing on top of a tall building like the Empire State Building with a long wet noodle and putting a piece of bubble gum on the end and trying to pick up a penny that's down on the sidewalk preparations for the search are sometimes unorthodox Detweiler took to the skies to visualize the deep I wanted the sky dye to experience what it was like to be working 17,000 feet away from something but it's very hard to visualize with all that water in between so this gave me the opportunity to clearly see without the water being in the way what was like to be that height their homing in on the Elektra the Rena program is defining a search area to be scoured by underwater machines Dave Jordan is convinced the Electra will be there but the search areas exact location is top secret the question everyone wants the answer to is where is she and that is of course a very important and secret to us that's what we're keeping to ourselves for now we'll let everyone know when we find her we can reveal that the electrolyze within a five hundred square mile area close to Howland Island the indications are that Amelia may have got within 50 miles of her target the greatest aviation mystery may finally be solved my gut feel is we're gonna find it it I feel very good about it if he's right then this will be one of the great pieces of modern detective work if not then Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan will still be out there somewhere but Amelia's legend lives on she remains the queen of the skies a brave and beautiful woman who rewrote the record books inspiring a whole generation Amelia Earhart died in a pioneering attempt to show the world the possibilities of flight in the process she helped to lay the basis for modern air travel bringing the most remote and beautiful corners of our planet within our reach you

Channel: Naked Science

Views: 1,149,561

Keywords: amelia, earhart, documentary, search, lost, final, flight, aviation, missing, vanished, mystery, aircraft, last, sighting, navigator, avro, avian, lockheed, model, electra, vega, greatest, woman, pilot, female, aviator, disappeared, myth, classic, biplane, epic, journey, spying, captive, phoenix, islands, castaway, expedition, pioneer, evidence, found, fact, clue, aeroplane, transatlantic, airplane, solo, mary, heath, restored, historic, aviatrix, commercial, airliner, story, equator, odyssey, crash, fuel, error, mechanical, failure, american, flying, ocean

Id: KPrBgNXpV7w

Length: 50min 39sec (3039 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 06 2014