History Channel AE critical summary

[Steve Birdsall]

There is absolutely no reason to assume that is a woman sitting on the dock. In addition there is nobody in that photo who even vaguely resembles Noonan, and nothing that really looks like an aircraft anywhere in the photo.

And the photo in question was taken in 1935 or earlier.

History Channel really screwed up and they should admit it.

[zorro9]

Steve:

Hi! Fm across the pond!!

..not so fast!! Let's just wait for a second look/authenticity of a second book to include the Japanese version of dates & stamps. I think it's worth to double ck all versions of poss data in the AE saga. Hang tight!!!

Last edited by zorro9 on Tue Jul 25, 2017 6:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[old iron]

zorro9 wrote:

..not so fast!! Let's just wait for a second look/authenticity of a second book to include the Japanese version of dates & stamps. I think it's worth to double ck all versions of poss data in the AE saga. Hand tight!!!

All well and good - we do not want to make any hasty judgments here. But a book with a 1935 publication date is pretty solid evidence; such dates are seldom given in error. We should remind ourselves that the AE episode on the HC has provided no evidence at all that the picture is from 1937, or even the 1930s in general.

Meanwhile, the Mili/Jaluit crowd made an extremely hasty judgment, and then labeled this as "proof" in the History Channel presentation. The only thing that was proved here was that those who made this claim have NO CREDIBILITY. No rational, trained historian would ever make such a claim on so little evidence. It cannot be proven that the seated figure is a female, or caucasian, or a specific individual of any name, let alone AE

I have previously made comparison to the many ancient alien episodes, also on HC. These stories are filled with a population of people who have no apparent credentials - an academic position at a reputable university with a graduate program, for example - and my guess is that AE episode has a similar cast of characters.

I have also read it said that in the photo "she" is gazing on "her airplane" behind the freighter, when it appears to me that there is a fairly significant-sized boat interspersed between the two.

I doubt there was a professionally trained photo analyst, any more than the so-called experts in the ancient alien episodes.

[Steve Birdsall]

Apparently National Geographic chased up the History Channel's "facial recognition expert" for comment and his response was very strange indeed . . .

In a phone interview with National Geographic, Gibson added that since the documentary filmed, he has acquired new facial-recognition software that signals a match between the photograph's Caucasian man and Fred Noonan. His previous software had indicated that there were too few pixels in the photograph to successfully perform the analysis. (In a follow-up email, Gibson declined additional comment.)

As I said, the assumption that there's a "Caucasian man" in that photograph is downright ridiculous.

[zorro9]

AE Saga Folks:

IMHO, I'm pretty sure that the H/Channel folks are further pursuing some more interesting details about the photo, specially after some diplomatic comments already made by the Smithsonian & The National Geographic folks.

By interesting details/leads I mean for instance: Who the photographer was, poss other copies or angles available of the same area still at the Palau Islands publishing house & as I mentioned before some of his S. Sea pictures/Negatives still stashed -up in a box with some of his relatives somewhere in Japan in 2017!! The poss still exist that the negative is in Japan also!! The Japanese managed to digitize the whole book c 2009 or so! 2 B Cont...

[Steve Birdsall]

IMHO you're dead wrong.

[old iron]

Who the photographer was, poss other copies or angles available of the same area still at the Palau Islands publishing house & as I mentioned before some of his S. Sea pictures/Negatives still stashed -up in a box with some of his relatives somewhere in Japan in 2017!! The poss still exist that the negative is in Japan also!!

None of this of course matters if, as the evidence strongly states, the photo was made during or before 1935. Do we need to have any of the above to adequately debunk the claim that the photo is of AE and her airplane?

[Steve Birdsall]

I don't think the History Channel will be doing much more than hoping this just goes away, and the sooner the better.

Even if the photo was taken in July 1937, the fact remains that nobody in it really looks like Noonan or Earhart, and nothing in the photo really looks like their Lockheed Electra. It would – or should – have been debunked without needing that 1935 Japanese book.

As another poster pointed out, when that photo was produced everyone involved in the History Channel program knew the conclusion they were supposed to reach from the very start.

The fanciful assessment of that photo has a lot in common with all the other flimsy so-called Earhart “evidence” about Marines on Saipan, engine tags and god knows what else. It also reminds me a lot of some of the MIA scams from years ago.

My interest in all this is sort of peripheral . . . I’m hoping that David Billings might stumble upon some of the missing pieces of 41-2429, the B-17E piloted by Captain Harl Pease that exploded over New Britain on 7 August 1942. That would be a very good outcome.

[zorro9]

SB/Old Iron & AE Saga Folks:

I have the feeling that another B/W will appear with new details of the AE saga!! Some hard evidence of their final whereabouts!

But... what about the Lockheed Electra? Didn't the H/Channel folks showed a poss witness almost at the end of the 2 HR show stating that he had seen the aircraft in a small Japanese airport on the side of a hangar?? Prob Saipan?? But when asked he could not remember the a/c color?? Do anyone remembers more details of the interview??? Place name?? Weren't the Japanese interested in glancing at a reliable USA P/W engine & perhaps copy some of the Western Tech???? Meaning, that in c. 1937 they were not in a hurry to destroy the a/c but quietly look at the A&P structure & attempt to update theirs???

How come not a single a/c B/w has emerged since July 1937?? Except for the fuzzy sample of the H/C special?? I think something in this area will catch someone attention!! 2 B Cont....

[Russ Matthews]

But... what about the Lockheed Electra? Weren't the Japanese interested in glancing at a reliable USA P/W engine & perhaps copy some of the Western Tech???? Meaning, that in c. 1937 they were not in a hurry to destroy the a/c but quietly look at the A&P structure & attempt to update theirs???

In a word, "no." The Japanese had absolutely no incentive to steal an Electra in July, 1937 .. considering that the Imperial Navy bought one [c/n 1017] directly from Lockheed over two years earlier in March of 1935.

How come not a single a/c B/w has emerged since July 1937?? Except for the fuzzy sample of the H/C special?? I think something in this area will catch someone attention!! 2 B Cont....

I'm going to go out on a limb and say it's because no such photos exist.The plane was down and lost (off Gardner or Howland .. or even on New Britain) and nobody was around to take pictures.

[airnutz]

But... what about the Lockheed Electra? Weren't the Japanese interested in glancing at a reliable USA P/W engine & perhaps copy some of the Western Tech???? Meaning, that in c. 1937 they were not in a hurry to destroy the a/c but quietly look at the A&P structure & attempt to update theirs???

In a word, "no." The Japanese had absolutely no incentive to steal an Electra in July, 1937 .. considering that the Imperial Navy bought one [c/n 1017] directly from Lockheed over two years earlier in March of 1935.

Not to mention that they already, or soon, were building certain models of P&W's under license in Japan.

I'm going back to a much simpler time. I'm getting aboard the Wayback Machine to the 60's where Amelia, retired from public life privately was wiling away her years in obscurity in New Jersey. Prove me wrong!

[old iron]

Here is a story "debunking the bebunkers" ... I pass on for whatever this may be worth.

http://www.mpnnow.com/news/20170820/debunking-debunkers-of-history-channels-amelia-earhart-story

[Steve Birdsall]

It's not worth much, that's for sure. That photo was never in the least "evidence". There was actually no real resemblance to Earhart and Noonan at all.

[aerojock]

I am not sure if this has been mentioned before but I did find one thing interesting. The medic that supposedly treated Noonan described the same injuries as the woman who reported hearing her radio call days after her disappearance. The two lived thousands of miles away and as far as I can tell, from the show anyway, they have never met. That would be a big coincidence.