Bone-sniffing dogs set to hunt for aviator Amelia Earhardt who went missing 80 YEARS ago
The mystery of what happened to Amelia Earhart and her navigator almost 80 years ago could be solved with the help of bone-sniffing dogs, it was learned on Wednesday.
An expedition of forensic scientists is due to set sail on Saturday for a remote Pacific island together with specially trained dogs in an effort to find the pilots’ remains, National Geographic reported on Wednesday.
The mission is being organized by the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR).
It is bound for the tiny, uninhabited island of Nikumaroro, which lies about 1,000 miles north of Fiji.
Experts who have investigated the disappearance of Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan believe that their plane ended up on that island after missing their intended destination in June 1937.
Earhart, who in 1932 became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean solo, vanished while trying to find Howland Island, 1,700 nautical miles southwest of Honolulu.
TIGHAR believes that Earhart’s real fate is more chilling: she died a castaway on a different Pacific island.
Earhart was four months into her 29,000-mile trip when she began to run low on fuel while trying to find Howland Island.
She and her navigator, Fred Noonan, were last seen on radar on June 2. Then they disappeared. What happened to the pair is a mystery, but experts believe they didn’t plunge into the water.
Nikumaroro lies 350 nautical miles southwest of Howland.
In her last confirmed radio message, Earhart identified the island’s position on the map.
TIGHAR members - including engineers and archaeologists - also claim to have found aluminium paneling fitting 1930s specifications, Plexiglas like that used in Earhart’s plane, and ball bearings.
They also claim to have found a size 9 Cat’s Paw heel dating from the 1930s, similar to that seen on Earhart’s footwear in world flight photos.
But the plane itself is nowhere to be found because it likely would have been pulled into the sea by the tide.
TIGHAR has so far sent 12 missions in search of Earhart, though this time there is a sense that scientists are getting closer to finding out what exactly happened to her.
‘This expedition is less of a shot in the dark than any expedition we’ve had,’ says Tom King, TIGHAR’S senior archaeologist.
In 1940, Gerald Gallagher, a British colonial officer and licensed pilot, told his superiors that he’d found a skeleton on the island.
It was sent to Fiji where measurements were taken.
It was initially identified as male, but re-examination of the measurements in 1998 concluded it was probably a tall white female.
The bones were lost in the years between.