The last and final flight of Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan ended with them dying on Gardner Island between the 7th and 9th of July, 1937 (according to the conclusion reached by The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, TIGHAR, and the Discovery Channel). The thought process they used was quite simple.

Supposedly, the pair was marooned on a desert island with no food and no water. How could they have lasted for more than 5 days?

Possibly the story of the Lady be Good, a B-24D American Bomber, lost on April 4, 1943 after a raid on Naples, Italy will shed some light on the subject. Her crew was on their first combat mission. They had arrived at the 376th Bombardment Group (Heavy) on March 18th and the Lady be Good had landed at the Group’s home base of Soluch Field, Libya on March 25th. The plane was brand new and her crew was very inexperienced.

Their first mission was a fiasco with 9 of the 13 bombers returning to base due to a sandstorm. Two of the four bombers that continued the mission dropped their bombs on their secondary target since the primary was obscured by clouds. The other two dropped their bombs in the Mediterranean to reduce weight and save fuel. The Lady be Good flew back towards Libya alone. To make a long story short they miscalculated their position, over flew the base and continued south into the desert. The aircraft was thought to have crashed into the Mediterranean Sea and the entire crew was listed as MIA (Missing in Action).

Over 15 years later, on November 9, 1958, the aircraft was discovered 440 miles southeast of Soluch Field in the Calanshio Sand Sea in the Libyan Desert. It was a ghost ship, one engine had been running when it crashed and no trace of the crew was found.

Eight of the nine crewmember’s remains were recovered between February and August of 1960 by the U.S. Army. Most importantly, Robert Toner, the co-pilot, still had his diary tucked in his pocket! He had described their ordeal and what they did: it was amazing! The eight men were strung out in a line. Five members were found 80 miles from the wreck. The sixth man was discovered 100 miles from the wreck. The seventh man was actually located 107 miles away! That’s 107 miles, folks: no shade, no food and ONE CANTEEN OF WATER FOR ALL EIGHT MEN. The last man has never been found so no one knows how far he got. The ninth member of the crew was recovered near the wreck. His parachute had only partially opened and he died on impact. So how long did this ordeal take? It took eight days according to Toner’s diary. That was eight days on one canteen of water between 8 people under a punishing sun and sweltering desert heat. They actually walked 80 to 107 miles no less. It is quite sad that such heroic effort went unrewarded.

So, Ladies and Gentlemen, do you really think that Amelia and Fred died 7 days after they landed on Gardner Island? A picture of Amelia shows her holding a thermos large enough for 2 quarts, so it is safe to assume that Fred had the same amount with him. It was the tail end of the rainy season so pools of water were most likely still on the island. They had at least one documented grove of coconut palms. Coconuts have water in them and they had birds and crabs to eat. So they had water, food and shade, plus the temperature was about 80 degrees instead of 110 degrees. The breeze off the ocean would have been cool instead of hot and drying.

Does anyone still believe that Amelia and Fred died on Gardner Island? Let me know what you think.