RSS
Home
Amelia Earhart: Has the mystery of her disappearance finally been solved?
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
Note: While the Archeology Travel Examiner is supposedly on vacation, some news cannot wait until her return.
Archeology isn’t just about pots. It’s also about sunken ships (HMS Titanic), forensics (To Catch a Relic Looter) or lost planes (Bermuda Triangle). One the most fascinating plane wrecks of all time concerns the mysterious disappearance of Amelia Earhart.
Yesterday, ABC news reported that possible mitochondrial DNA evidence gathered from a remote Pacific Island will be studied to see if it does in fact, belong to Amelia Earhart.
Almost 75 years ago, Earhart disappeared while attempting to fly around the world with her navigator in a Lockheed A-10E Electra. $4,000,000 was spent on failed rescue attempts and over time, conspiracy theorists debated her disappearance, offering hypotheses ranging from a direct crash into the ocean to alien abduction a la Star Trek Voyager.
Researchers at The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (Tighar) now believe Earhart was stranded on Nikumaroro Island, a theory supported by remnants of a 1930s compact and other cosmetics items recently uncovered at an old campsite.
Additionally, a female descendent of Earhart has donated samples of her mitochondrial DNA (genetic material passed only from mother to daughter) to assist in proving (or disproving) Tighar’s theory.
While expert opinion (and conspiracy theorists) are still divided over just where and why Earhart’s plane went down, Tighar is convinced this small island, 1,800 miles south of Hawaii, holds the final clues to this mystery and will attempt to prove it.
Archeologists and researchers will be returning to Nikumaroro next June, hoping to find the definitive answer.
Read the full ABC news article here.
Related Articles:
Comments
