Possible sonar breakthrough in Amelia Earhart mystery was nearly lost as adventurers investigated ‘d

[mystery-ak]

 Possible sonar breakthrough in Amelia Earhart mystery was nearly lost as adventurers investigated ‘date line’ theory: report
By Social Links for Matthew Sedacca
Published Feb. 3, 2024, 3:53 p.m. ET
A potential breakthrough in the 87-year-old mystery surrounding Amelia Earhart’s disappearance almost vanished like the trailblazing aviator herself while the adventurers who captured it investigated a 14-year-old theory about what happened on her ill-fated flight.

Deep Sea Vision CEO Tony Romeo and his brother Lloyd released sonar images last week from their $11 million expedition in the Pacific Ocean, which depicted a hazy plane-shaped mass they believe may be Earhart’s Lockheed 10-E Electra.

The brothers, who say they are planning another expedition this year or next to get better pictures of the wreckage, told The Daily Mail the potentially vital images may have never seen the light of day due to hard drive issues they encountered during their 90-day voyage.

The 16-person expedition, funded by the sale of Tony Romeo’s commercial real estate properties, launched in September from Tarawa, Kiribati, a port near Howland Island.

They scanned 5,200 square miles of ocean floor using an underwater drone, whose sonar data had to be retrieved and scanned between runs.

At one point, the hard drives seemed totally corrupted and were set to be wiped and formatted — until the company’s chief of operations discovered the data was retrievable, he said. 

That’s when the group’s incredible discovery was made.

“We realized that we had something there — an area that’s very sandy and flat, this immediately stuck out as something that was very likely an aircraft,” Romeo told the Daily Mail.

The brothers said their team’s potentially groundbreaking discovery stemmed from the “Date Line” theory proposed in 2010 by Liz Smith, a former NASA employee and amateur pilot, to explain the disappearance of Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, during what was supposed to be a record-setting voyage around the world in 1937.



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https://nypost.com/2024/02/03/news/possible-breakthrough-in-amelia-earhart-case-nearly-lost-report/

[PeteS in CA]

There was somewhat of a explorers colony by the US on Howland Island in the 1930s. That's why Earhart wanted to refuel there. Because of that colony and the airstrip on the island the Japanese conducted several air raids on the island using twin-engine G3M "Nell" bombers. Consequently, it is not impossible that this sonar could be a plane but not Earhart's.

[Smokin Joe]

There was somewhat of a explorers colony by the US on Howland Island in the 1930s. That's why Earhart wanted to refuel there. Because of that colony and the airstrip on the island the Japanese conducted several air raids on the island using twin-engine G3M "Nell" bombers. Consequently, it is not impossible that this sonar could be a plane but not Earhart's.

I agree:

Lockheed Electra:




Japanese Mitsubishi G3M "Nell" Bomber:



Higher resolution might well be able to determine which via cockpit and dorsal fuselage structure (cockpit and gun positions in the latter, relatively enclosed on the former.
From that image, it could be either.

[PeteS in CA]

For some reason Edge doesn't like the picture of the G3M "Nell" posted above, so here's another try:



Viewed from above, as in the sonar picture, it could resemble a Lockheed Electra.

I assume that the search team has kept the location of this possible plane wreck secret to hinder metal pirates and souvenir hunters.

By the time the US got bombed into WW2, the Imperial Japanese Navy was phasing out the Nell and the better known G4M "Betty" was coming into service. However, the IJN didn't send their Nells to the scrap yard. They continued using them, e.g. for raids on more remote islands like Howland; a mix of Nells and Bettys were used in the attacks that sank HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse.