http://www.newsmax.com/PrintTemplate.aspx/?nodeid=649836
Newsmax
New Amelia Earhart Footage Shows Famed Pilot Before Disappearance
Wednesday, June 10, 2015 02:45 PM
By: Breana Noble
New Amelia Earhart footage has been released depicting the famous pilot in a Burbank, California, photoshoot in 1937 before her attempt to fly around the world.
Earhart’s long-time friend and photographer Albert Bresnik took photos of the female aviator prior to her attempt to circumnavigate the globe, KTLA reported. Another unknown individual recorded the event on film, most of which has never been seen before.
The rare clips are being released in conjunction with a new book featuring Bresnik’s photos of Earhart and her plane prior to her mysterious disappearance, CNN reported. The book is called “Amelia Earhart’s Last Photo Shoot” with text by Nicole Swinford.
Swinford believes the footage was shot days before the departure of her second attempt to fly around the world in late May of 1937, but International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery Richard Gillespie thinks the video was recorded before her first attempt in March, Time magazine reported.
John Bresnik, the photographer’s nephew, discovered the film after inheriting it from his father, the brother of Albert Bresnik, according to CNN. All of the Earhart photos and negatives were stored for five decades following her disappearance.
The video depicts Earhart posing for photos, climbing into the cockpit of the Lockheed Electra L-10E plane, and walking along the tarmac of the Burbank Airport (now the Bob Hope Airport). Earhart’s husband George Putnam and navigator Fred Noonan are also shown, CNN noted.
Earhart attempted to be the first woman to fly around the world twice. Her first adventure began in March of 1937, but was stopped in Hawaii when her plane became severely damaged.
Swinford believes the photoshoot occurred after the plane was sent to the continental states to be fixed, during which an antenna was removed.
On her second attempt, Earhart and Noonan flew from Oakland, California, and eventually left the United States on June 1, 1937, according to KTLA.
The plane lost radio contact on July 2 while flying a 2,500-mile mid-Pacific stretch. Earhart was not seen again, and her plane was never found, KTLA reported.
The removed antenna “could very well have been the difference between success and failure for (the) last leg of the flight,” Swinford told CNN.
