Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 22, 1992 TAG: 9203220059
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: D7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LOCUST GROVE LENGTH: Medium
Michael B. Marcon of Locust Grove sees the latest theory about the famed aviator as just another chapter in what he calls a national obsession with her disappearance.
Marcon, with Jeff Ethell and Vincent Loomis, concluded in their 1984 book, "Amelia Earhart: The Final Story" that Earhart landed her twin-engine Lockheed Electra on Milli Milli atoll in the Marshall Islands.
Afterward, the authors contend, she and Fred Noonan, her navigator, were captured by the Japanese and imprisoned separately. They say Noonan later was shot by a guard, while Earhart survived longer only to succumb to dysentery.
Their plane was hauled aboard a Japanese seaplane tender but was dumped overboard on the way to the island of Saipan, the book suggests.
"I think the Japanese basically grabbed them and held them as long as they could," Marcon said. "They thought she would come in useful to them later on" as a bargaining chip.
An article in the April issue of Life magazine depicts an entirely different scenario, based on new efforts by a historic aircraft recovery group.
Richard Gillespie, who heads The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, said last week that items found on Nikumaroro atoll prove Earhart landed her plane there, and that she and Noonan probably died there.
The two left Oakland, Calif., 55 years ago for Hawaii, attempting to circle the globe. Their plane was damaged in a crash-landing in Hawaii, which called for major repairs before they could continue their trip.
On a subsequent leg of the flight, Gillespie believes a navigational error caused Earhart to miss Howland Island and crash-land on Nikumaroro, a weather observation station, on July 2, 1937.
Gillespie's claims have been met with skepticism. Critics include Earhart researchers and Lockheed engineers familiar with her plane, who said the fragment of metal found on Nikumaroro could not have come from the plane.
Other historians believe the pilot, lost and low on fuel, drowned after she was forced to ditch her plane at sea.
Marcon says thousands of aircraft crashed into the sea in the area where the search has concentrated, so it is impossible to determine whether the aluminum fragment was from Earhart's plane.
"Why didn't anybody on [Nikumaroro] during the war find anything of consequence?" he said. "And how many shoe heels [like the one found] were made . . . during the war?
"I find the whole thing very difficult to believe," he said.
Marcon said the theory in his book was based in part on witnesses who claimed to have seen Earhart and Noonan while they were imprisoned by the Japanese.
"Amelia Earhart will never die, because we'll resurrect her every 18 months. She holds the kind of morbid fascination that the Bermuda Triangle does," Marcon said.
by CNB