Bob Ballard vindicates Tighar

[p51]

I wish Ballard would take his search gear and start making passes up and down The English Channel.
I would rather see that than a beat up Lockheed.

I, too, but most normal folks, wouldn't.
Even if Ballard (or anyone else) ever finds real proof of Earhart and solves the mystery, I think that would detract from our society just a little.
People love a mystery, and solving this one, finding Jimmy Hoffa, D B Cooper or Loch Ness Monster/Bigfoot (or most likely, proving those to be a hoax) would take away what little sense of wonderment and curiosity we have today.
I'm just fine with only knowing that Earhart and Noonan are no longer with us and almost certainly didn't survive the 1930s.

[JohnB]

Mysteries were meant to be solved.
Forget that "we need mysteties" bs...
With that attitude, Columbus would have never left the dock and Neil Armstrong would be a forgotten former test pilot.

I'd like to see them found if for no other reason than to repudiate a certain individual who has managed to make a good living off the deaths of two people.

[PinecastleAAF]

I'd like to see them found if for no other reason than to repudiate a certain individual who has managed to make a good living off the deaths of two people.

They have to be famous and dead, that's where the money is. Just being dead isn't good enough.

[Mark Allen M]

I know very little about this Earhart stuff and all the interest and mystery that goes with it.

The only mystery to me is the fact that my mom and dad stopped feeding me bananas and coconuts when I was real real young and I'm still finding sand in the strangest bodily places to this day.
Why I hate bananas, coconuts and sand is the only mystery I'd like to solve ....

[DaveM2]

I consider this to be ample vindication of Gillespie's work. I'm proud to have been a member of Tighar since 1986.

You must be chuffed that your money and the other millions harvested have resulted in the recovery and restoration of a number of significant aircraft. I will be heading to the States later this year and would like to admire some of them, have you a list and location?

[quemerford]

Difficult to know why you would be proud to be a TIGHAR member; harder still to know why you'd feel the need to admit it!

[menards]

The TIGHAR narrative reads like moon hoax theory. The group starts with presumptive conclusion, then spins a bunch rhetoric to support the conclusion. Refute all other facts or evidence to anything contrary to your conclusion. Thats why they dont have any credibility. Whats going to happen when the Electra is not found located just off the reef? Future TIGHAR press release: "We modeled out the tides and currents from July 2 1937, and we fully expected the Electra to be carried out to sea. The fact that the Electra is not just off the reef is PROOF that our Gardner Island hypothesis holds...."

You know its coming...

[quemerford]

The TIGHAR narrative reads like moon hoax theory. The group starts with presumptive conclusion, then spins a bunch rhetoric to support the conclusion. Refute all other facts or evidence to anything contrary to your conclusion. Thats why they dont have any credibility. Whats going to happen when the Electra is not found located just off the reef? Future TIGHAR press release: "We modeled out the tides and currents from July 2 1937, and we fully expected the Electra to be carried out to sea. The fact that the Electra is not just off the reef is PROOF that our Gardner Island hypothesis holds...."

You know its coming...

Frighteningly accurate: TIGHAR may have a job for you, writing press releases

[p51]

You know its coming...

We do indeed.
Well said.

[JohnB]

That the group has survived so long and its founder reportedly makes $200k a year (per IRS documents reported on the Aviation Mysteries forum) says something about human nature...wanting to believe and belong...but also gullibility.

P.T. Barnum was right..

[Clifford Bossie]

That the group has survived so long and its founder reportedly makes $200k a year (per IRS documents reported on the Aviation Mysteries forum) says something about human nature...wanting to believe and belong...but also gullibility.

P.T. Barnum was right..

The sad thing is P. T. Barnum never said "A sucker born every minute." It was a detractor of his that said it about him. Barnum believed that a customer should receive something for his money. The opposite of TIGHAR.

[ZRX61]

I wish Ballard would take his search gear and start making passes up and down The English Channel.There has to be a bunch of semi-intact ditched planes and lots of boats.Maybe on the way to that Nikumoreau Island he could go find some of the Japanese carriers sunk near Midway.I think he tried earlier but ran out of time.I would rather see that than a beat up Lockheed.

Given the currents in the Channel & the 30ft+ tides etc, just about anything in the channel from WWII is already out in the Atlantic someplace. Same reason they have issues finding stuff in the Bermuda Triangle, all that stuff is long gone from where it disappeared.

[Snake45]

That the group has survived so long and its founder reportedly makes $200k a year (per IRS documents reported on the Aviation Mysteries forum) says something about human nature...wanting to believe and belong...but also gullibility.

P.T. Barnum was right..

TIGHAR reminds me of the Southern Poverty Law Center and a number of other "causes" I could name: They don't want to solve a problem, they want to make a good living servicing the problem.

[marine air]

Hillary Clinton was talking about finding Amelia Earhart several years. Maybe for feminists she’s their John .Glenn or Charles Lindbergh. Ballard is probably the last best chance of finding Earnhardt.
Many of the wrecks he has found had known coordinates , or approximate locations.in this case he will have to separate the “ wheat from the chaff” and get down to the actual facts.
Maybe the Japanese Navy records still exist for their ships in the area and if they shot down any enemy aircraft at the time. There would’ve been very few aircraft flying in that area at the time.
If Ballard fails then maybe it will be put to rest once and for all.

[JohnB]

You'll recall several years ago RG had a photo up with HC.
No doubt he was hoping to get a cushy job in her administration...Secretary of Lost Aircraft or something. Or he could offer training courses for bureaucrats and politicians on how to make a good living for 30 years at someone else's expense while producing absolutely nothing.


At the end of the first paragraph of the above post it reads.g.. "Ballard is probably the last best chance of finding Earnhardt".
That might be a new profit center for TIGHAR, since I hear to cut down on fan visits, Dale's graveian was initially unmarked.
If they're looking for Dale junior, since he got his NBC announcing gig, I'd suggest looking for him at an "English as a second language" class.