Documentary claims to solve mystery of missing aviator
The photo is haunting. Among a number of figures gathered on a dock, the fuzzy image seems to be that of a woman, her back to the camera, gazing at what may be her crippled aircraft loaded on a barge, and perhaps wondering what her future might hold.
Is this Amelia Earhart, the world-famous aviator, witnessed after her mysterious disappearance while attempting the first round-the-world flight 80 years ago?
That is the theory put forth in Amelia Earhart: The Lost Evidence, a two-hour documentary that uncovers records, including this newly revealed photograph that shows what may be a healthy Earhart along with her navigator Fred Noonan, after they were last heard from.
The film also argues that after the pair crash-landed in the Japanese-held Marshall Islands, they were picked up by the Japanese military and that Earhart, perhaps presumed to be a US spy, was held prisoner. And there’s more — the United States government knew of her whereabouts and did nothing to rescue her, according to the film.
The disappearance of Earhart and Noonan on July 2, 1937 has gained legendary status among the age’s unsolved mysteries. By then she had already logged numerous aviation feats, including that of being the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic
Ocean in 1932. She reigned as an international hero.
And yet the US government closed the book on its investigation just two weeks after her disappearance. Its vaguely worded findings were inconclusive.
Was there a cover-up? The film proposes there was.
The documentary is hosted by former FBI executive assistant director Shawn Henry, whose fascination with the case is equalled by former US treasury agent Les Kinney, who discovered the photo hidden and mislabelled in the US national archives.
In the documentary, that photo is subjected to facialrecognition and other forensic testing. It is judged authentic, and likely that of Earhart and Noonan. AP
A month after Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt severed diplomatic, trade and transport ties with Qatar, accusing it of backing terrorism, it is suffering from isolation but is nowhere near an economic crisis.
The alliance against it, meanwhile, may not have options to inflict further damage.
As the world’s top liquefied natural gas exporter, Qatar is so rich -- at $127,660, its gross domestic product per capita in purchasing power terms is the highest of any country, according to the International Monetary Fund -- it can deploy money to counter almost any type of sanction. Qatar Airways said on Thursday passengers travelling to the United States can now carry their laptops and other large electronics on board, ending a three month in-cabin ban on devices for the Doha-based airline.
Qatar Airways joins Emirates, Turkish Airlines and Etihad Airways, which have also announced this week a lifting of the ban on their US flights.