Possible manmade parts found that might have been part of Amelia’s aircraft’s landing gear.



Article By Robert Goyer / Published: Aug 20, 2012

Brought to you by: www.flyingmag.com It’s very possible that the wreckage of Amelia Earhart’s Lockheed Electra 10E has been at long last located. Objects that might well be part of the wreckage were spotted recently in the bushes behind my barbeque in Austin, Texas, a location where searchers had not previously focused their efforts. “We thought we might have been closing in on the wreckage, but until we spotted what can only be described as a small but curious debris field right off the edge of the deck, we weren’t sure we were looking in the right place,” said the leader of the Austin expedition, which is, er, me.



The exact location of the wreckage of Earhart’s plane has long been a mystery. The pilot, along with her navigator Fred Noonan, disappeared more than 75 years ago on one of the last legs of the pair’s round-the-world journey. There have long been theories as to what happened to the doomed flight—some even suggested that Earhart had been taken prisoner by the Japanese and held in captivity for years after the crash. And at least one team of searchers has been making regular visits to the South Pacific in search of the wreckage.



It wasn’t until last week, however, that I spotted the evidence myself in my backyard, inexplicably right behind the Kenmore grill. Previous searches had focused in vain on the herb garden to the west of the house, before I shifted my attention to the back of the house, theorizing that shifting winds might have taken the flight in that direction.



Until last year Austin, Texas, had not been considered a likely candidate to find the wreckage. After all, it is many thousands of miles east of where Earhart’s plane was presumed to have run out of fuel, and in order for the flight to have reached Austin, it would have had to have flown over parts of the North American continent for half a day, indeed for days after it should have run out of fuel. Fortunately, however, members of the search team were not thrown off by the seeming inconsistencies of the search effort and continued working to find some evidence.



That evidence, pictured above, might possibly be the red plastic dog bowl that Earhart or Noonan had onboard with them. There has long been talk of a dog and the red plastic bowl by islanders who are no longer around to confirm or deny such reports. Either that or it might be part of the landing gear. It’s probably part of the landing gear.



Before the wreckage could be recovered, cloudy weather and dinner forced the search team to return to base. It’s not clear when they will have another opportunity to return to explore the possible debris field, though donations, a spokesman said, would help. Benefactors are currently being sought to allow searchers to procure supplies, chiefly beer but steaks too, to enable a return expedition soon.

