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Finding Amelia: The True Story of the Earhart Disappearance
In the seventy years since the disappearance of Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan during a flight over the Central Pacific, their fate has remained one of history’s most debated mysteries. Dozens of books have offered a variety of solutions to the puzzle, but they all draw on the same handful of documents and conflicting eyewitness accounts. Now a wealth of new information uncovered by the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) allows this book to offer the first fully documented history of what happened. Scrupulously accurate and thrilling to read, it tells the story from the letters, logs, and telegrams that recorded events as they unfolded. Many long-accepted facts are revealed as myths. Author Ric Gillespie, TIGHAR’s executive director, draws on the work of his organization’s historians, archæologists, and scientists, who compiled and analyzed more than five thousand documents relating to the Earhart case. Their research led to the hypothesis that Earhart and Noonan died as castaways on a remote Pacific atoll. But this book is not a polemic that argues for a particular theory. Rather, it presents all of the authenticated historical dots and leaves it to the reader to make the connections. In addition to details about the Earhart’s career and final flight, the book examines her relationship with the U.S. government and the massive search undertaken by the U.S. Coast Guard and Navy. For serious students of Earhart’s disappearance, an accompanying DVD reproduces the documents, reports, and technical studies cited in the text, allowing instant review and verification of the sources.
276 pages, Hardcover
First published August 16, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews
July 25, 2018
Very detailed and a bit technical, giving a day by day account of the search for Amelia Earhart, s missing plane. So much effort went into the initial search, i was willing them to find her! I love an unsolved mystery!
November 11, 2014
This is certainly a different take than Elgen Long's Amelia Earhart. Whereas Long assures us that Earhart and Noonan ditched and died within a 100-mile radius of Howland Island, and that the "mystery is solved", Mr. Gillespie leaves the mystery door open to a very wide extent. Long's book essentially ends shortly after the Electra is overdue at Howland, whereas Gillespie's continues on for several days afterwards and includes the extensive search that was conducted as well the various professional and amateur radio reports of possible contacts well after the Electra would have been out of fuel.
And one key element that Long fails to mention that Gillespie provides, is the reason for Earhart's failure to hear but one or two of the radio responses to her radio calls. SPOILER(?) According to Gillespie, photographic evidence suggestions that the Electra lost its primary receiving antenna during the take-off from New Guinea due to:(1)the plane being more heavily loaded that it had ever been, (2) the uneven turf runway at Lae, NG, and (3) the location of the receiving antenna on struts underneath the belly of the plane.
This resolved the mystery for me when I read Long's book of why she never heard the many, many responses to her radio calls. The only reception she ever acknowledged was when she was using the RDF loop antenna on top of the plane, which could only receive Morse code carrier signals. She acknowledged hearing the letter 'A' being sent by the Itasca.
Both this book and Long's book should be read by anyone seriously interested in what might have actually happened to Earhart and Noonan. The former supplies the "null hypothesis" and the latter, an intriguing theory that Earhart and Noonan may have survived for a few days or more after landing on a reef flat (which I know from firsthand experience is quite possible). However, as Carl Sagan once said, "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence" and so, until someone either finds the Electra or the DNA of Earhart or Noonan, the mystery will never be completely solved.
And one key element that Long fails to mention that Gillespie provides, is the reason for Earhart's failure to hear but one or two of the radio responses to her radio calls. SPOILER(?) According to Gillespie, photographic evidence suggestions that the Electra lost its primary receiving antenna during the take-off from New Guinea due to:(1)the plane being more heavily loaded that it had ever been, (2) the uneven turf runway at Lae, NG, and (3) the location of the receiving antenna on struts underneath the belly of the plane.
This resolved the mystery for me when I read Long's book of why she never heard the many, many responses to her radio calls. The only reception she ever acknowledged was when she was using the RDF loop antenna on top of the plane, which could only receive Morse code carrier signals. She acknowledged hearing the letter 'A' being sent by the Itasca.
Both this book and Long's book should be read by anyone seriously interested in what might have actually happened to Earhart and Noonan. The former supplies the "null hypothesis" and the latter, an intriguing theory that Earhart and Noonan may have survived for a few days or more after landing on a reef flat (which I know from firsthand experience is quite possible). However, as Carl Sagan once said, "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence" and so, until someone either finds the Electra or the DNA of Earhart or Noonan, the mystery will never be completely solved.
October 10, 2019
I'm not an Amelia Earhart fan, but I found this book to be extremely informative regarding Earhart's final flight, the various radio transmissions believed to have been sent by Earhart for a few days after her disappearance, and the subsequent air/sea search. The author presents evidence suggesting that Earhart and Noonan landed on a coral reef off of Gardner Island, although he never actually comes out in the text and makes that claim. Instead, he lays out the evidence based upon radio intercepts, etc., and allows the reader to come to that conclusion. A supplemental CD contains official reports from the flight and search. All in all, this book is very well documented and a fascinating read. The author's organization (www.tighar.org) continues to send periodic search teams to Gardner Island (now Nikumaroro) in an effort to find physical evidence to support this hypothesis.
October 26, 2007
I was put off with the beginning of this book, which contains much technical information about Amelia Earhart's preparations for her ill-fated around-the-world flight. Once the flight begins, however, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that all this technical information was now highly relevant--and highly interesting too. Having finished the book, I have two lingering gripes:
1. The book spends too much time debunking misinformation that will be familiar only to the Earhart-obsessed--ordinary readers will just want to know the facts.
2. The epilogue is an annoying one-page tease. A great deal of archaeological evidence has been uncovered supporting a possible crash site for the Earhart plane, but this epilogue chooses to give only the barest hint of what has been learned.
On the whole, however, I highly recommend this book. It is history of the best sort in that it fights mightily to cut through myth and misinformation and to establish what we actually know about a fascinating story.
1. The book spends too much time debunking misinformation that will be familiar only to the Earhart-obsessed--ordinary readers will just want to know the facts.
2. The epilogue is an annoying one-page tease. A great deal of archaeological evidence has been uncovered supporting a possible crash site for the Earhart plane, but this epilogue chooses to give only the barest hint of what has been learned.
On the whole, however, I highly recommend this book. It is history of the best sort in that it fights mightily to cut through myth and misinformation and to establish what we actually know about a fascinating story.
January 29, 2023
Finding Amelia is an exhaustively researched account of the disappearance of famed aviator Amelia Earhart on 2 July 1937. A serious historical work, the book contains many details and documents, but author Ric Gillespie succeeds in making it approachable for the average reader. Executive director of the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, he draws upon the work of his organization in analyzing more than 5,000 documents related to the Earhart disappearance. Although the loss of Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan remains an unsolved mystery, Finding Amelia marshals available data to paint a picture of the doomed flight and subsequent futile searches that captivated the press and public in the late 1930s.
The book offers contemporary lessons as well. Intense media scrutiny and significant financial pressure demanded a very strict timetable for the Earhart flight, and Gillespie makes a strong case that these external forces led to important lapses in training and preparation. The author notes, with some measure of understatement, that "as in most aviation accidents, the loss was not due to a single catastrophic event, but rather to the snowballing of a number of mishaps and errors" (p. 103). Some interesting details emerge about the flight, particularly in the way of miscommunication and lapses that may have contributed to the tragedy. For instance, neither Earhart nor Noonan (an aviation pioneer in his own right) were conversant in Morse code (the radio-communications standard at the time). Furthermore, when rebuilding the aircraft after her first failed transworld effort, Earhart chose not to reattach a low-frequency antenna that might have allowed her to navigate by radio beacon. Inexplicably, Earhart and her team indicated that they planned to navigate by high-frequency radio beacon--more or less a technical impossibility at the time.
The book offers contemporary lessons as well. Intense media scrutiny and significant financial pressure demanded a very strict timetable for the Earhart flight, and Gillespie makes a strong case that these external forces led to important lapses in training and preparation. The author notes, with some measure of understatement, that "as in most aviation accidents, the loss was not due to a single catastrophic event, but rather to the snowballing of a number of mishaps and errors" (p. 103). Some interesting details emerge about the flight, particularly in the way of miscommunication and lapses that may have contributed to the tragedy. For instance, neither Earhart nor Noonan (an aviation pioneer in his own right) were conversant in Morse code (the radio-communications standard at the time). Furthermore, when rebuilding the aircraft after her first failed transworld effort, Earhart chose not to reattach a low-frequency antenna that might have allowed her to navigate by radio beacon. Inexplicably, Earhart and her team indicated that they planned to navigate by high-frequency radio beacon--more or less a technical impossibility at the time.
January 3, 2024
The best-researched and most complete account of the Earhart tragedy that we're ever likely to see.
July 4, 2011
This book, written to be the first of what will eventually be three volumes, was put out by the director of TIGHAR, the group that supports the theory that Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan managed to put down their plane on an uninhabited island south of their original destination when they became lost. This book actually does not discuss the research that has been done at Nikumaroro (Gardner Island) in the last 20 years; it talks about the actual trip and immediate aftermath.
This volume covers the preparation (or lack thereof) and the months leading up to the round-the-world flight; the aborted first attempt, and the second attempt and trip through to the disappearance. It then goes on to extensively cover the 17 day search and news bits related to the aftermath, including radio distress calls allegedly sent by Earhart and Noonan in the first few days, heard by various citizens with specially powerful radio capabilities.
This book is intended as a set up for the next volume, which I assume will cover the group's many expeditions to Nikumaroro since about 1989.
Excellent research and coverage of the last flight and immediate aftermath of AE's disappearance.
This volume covers the preparation (or lack thereof) and the months leading up to the round-the-world flight; the aborted first attempt, and the second attempt and trip through to the disappearance. It then goes on to extensively cover the 17 day search and news bits related to the aftermath, including radio distress calls allegedly sent by Earhart and Noonan in the first few days, heard by various citizens with specially powerful radio capabilities.
This book is intended as a set up for the next volume, which I assume will cover the group's many expeditions to Nikumaroro since about 1989.
Excellent research and coverage of the last flight and immediate aftermath of AE's disappearance.
January 20, 2010
I picked this up at the library on a whim. The book is probably pretty good at its task, which appears to be to give as many facts as possible about the Coast Guard and Naval search for Amelia Earhart. But...no background on Earhart, dry format... And the ending is odd: it quotes a 1940 telegram from the officer in charge of the Phoenix Islands Settlement Scheme to the Resident Commissioner, Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony that states that skeletal remains have been found that might be Earhart and asking for dental information. But that's the last entry; the author does not tell us whether any dental comparison was made or what the outcome was. Frustrating!
The most moving part of the book was the accounts of fragmentary messages possibly from Earhart in which I could just hear the desperation and fading hope.
Amelia Earhart's plane was lost about 10 years before I was born, but while I was growing up she was still a household name and a romantic symbol of adventure.
The most moving part of the book was the accounts of fragmentary messages possibly from Earhart in which I could just hear the desperation and fading hope.
Amelia Earhart's plane was lost about 10 years before I was born, but while I was growing up she was still a household name and a romantic symbol of adventure.
October 28, 2016
This book cuts through all the rumour and scuttlebut that surrounded Amelia Earhart's disappearance and lines up the facts one by one. While this makes the first half of the book something of a dull read, the tension really picks up as the author describes Earhart's last flight. After that, things just get downright intriguing. A fascinating account that uses research and the historical record as its basis, rather than opinion or conspiracy. Well worth persevering with.
September 7, 2022
I really enjoyed this book, even though it started off a bit slow. It was easy to get lost in all the technicalities about radio technology in the early chapters but it was more than made up for in the second half of the book. Would highly recommend to anyone interested in the Earhart disappearance, especially those looking for actual answers.
July 24, 2009
We still have not found her
July 30, 2022
5 stars for research and documentation. 1 star for narrative. The book went in chronological order, but the writing was very dry- it’s written like a textbook or an encyclopedia. It would have been more interesting if the book had a better storytelling vibe to it- it certainly would have made the reading go by much faster. I’m also a little disappointed because I was hoping to hear more about any possible physical evidence that was found on the islands after the search was called off. It’s like this book just focused on the moments leading up to her disappearance and the days after- including how the search was conducted and then it just stopped. It would have been good to look at all the evidence that’s been collected since the search was called off. I found it odd that the author spends hundreds of pages talking about possible radio transmissions but he spends a couple of sentences on a skull being found on an island something like this:
Last page of book: “Oh yeah, by the way, the navy found a female skull on Gardener island a few years later, said it might belong to Earhart- ok let’s end the book here.”
There’s also very little biographical info on AE.
I recommend this book only if you’re obsessed with or fascinated by AE and you’re trying to find her yourself. This is a great reference manual, but look somewhere else if you’re looking for a survey of AE or any biographical information. I’d also recommend it to amateur radio hobbyists as it mentions a lot of them and specific radio frequencies.
Last page of book: “Oh yeah, by the way, the navy found a female skull on Gardener island a few years later, said it might belong to Earhart- ok let’s end the book here.”
There’s also very little biographical info on AE.
I recommend this book only if you’re obsessed with or fascinated by AE and you’re trying to find her yourself. This is a great reference manual, but look somewhere else if you’re looking for a survey of AE or any biographical information. I’d also recommend it to amateur radio hobbyists as it mentions a lot of them and specific radio frequencies.
September 10, 2023
A deep analysis primarily of the radio communications at the time of Earhart's disappearance. The author is one of the most preeminent scholars of the Earhart mystery. He has a bent towards supporting his theory that she crashed on Gardner Island, though there are many other equally persuasive theories out there that he tends to ignore. That said, for anyone trying to get their arms around the facts of the days surrounding the disappearance, this is an important piece of research. Some of the earlier chapters describing the early days of her planning for her final flight (as well as the aborted first attempt) are also good background and well-researched. The book consistantly references a CD-ROM that must have accompanied early printings, but all of the reference material is now available on the TIGHAR website: https://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/A...
February 18, 2021
Excellent and extremely detailed with great care and attention to the analysis of the flights, the patterns, the geography and the immediate search. The almost criminally managed search efforts and lack of coordination exhibited through the authors study of the records from the times, and the searches on the islands of the area where Amelia and Fred were lost, is tremendously well put together. Makes for an excellent read and only really focuses on the days leading up to, and the immediate searches, after the disappearance. Very good
October 21, 2017
Fantastic book with loads of detailed information taken from many sources, put in chronological order. Ric Gillespie lets the reader to come up with their own conclusion to what happened to Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan. and I will read it again for there is a lot to think about. The book could use an update because a lot more information has been discovered since the book was published.
November 28, 2024
3.5 stars 🌟
This was quite obviously a meticulously researched book.
Having all the information in one place is helpful, the only thing I found, and I don't know if it's because I was listening to the audiobook, but it was very figure heavy. I couldn't keep track and it took me out of it somewhat but that's me not the book. I like that the author doesn't proclaim to have solved the mystery just lays all the facts out for you.
This was quite obviously a meticulously researched book.
Having all the information in one place is helpful, the only thing I found, and I don't know if it's because I was listening to the audiobook, but it was very figure heavy. I couldn't keep track and it took me out of it somewhat but that's me not the book. I like that the author doesn't proclaim to have solved the mystery just lays all the facts out for you.
January 23, 2025
This was really fascinating! I always loved reading theories about Amelia Earhart and her disappearance, but this was the first mass media I’ve ever consumed about it. It was incredibly in-depth and educated, there were so many details that I had never heard of before that played a factor into her disappearance during that flight. It also opened up my eyes to how unfortunate her luck was with how much trouble she had from the get go with her air craft.
If you enjoy theories about Amelia Earhart you will definitely enjoy this! It dragged at certain points but I feel like if I knew more about air travel and aviation those parts would have been just as interesting.
If you enjoy theories about Amelia Earhart you will definitely enjoy this! It dragged at certain points but I feel like if I knew more about air travel and aviation those parts would have been just as interesting.
August 10, 2017
A lot of research, a lot of human errors and dire consequences. If you want an exact answer to where she landed...don't expect. Although a Lot of technical information..it was a a good read! Wants me to read more on our Kansas gal.
April 20, 2024
A detailed look at what really happened in the days leading up Amelia Earhart disappearance and the efforts to find her afterwards. Well written and a book I felt left no stone unturned hopefully one day we'll know what happened to her and why.
May 14, 2017
Super engaging. I'm convinced.
July 20, 2017
One of the very best books about Earhart. No alien abductions, no black holes, nothing that is not backed up by research.
December 5, 2020
There are so many different theories about Amelia's disappearance. This is an interesting one. I did enjoy Gillespie's perspective.
March 20, 2022
An excellent history of the disappearance and the search. Hopefully someday TIGHAR or someone else will solve the mystery.
March 30, 2022
Good book, but I guess we will never find her?
February 2, 2024
Too detailed about Amelia’s plane going down with too many conflicting pieces of information definitely resulting in her not being able to be found - not enough about Amelia.
May 19, 2024
Excellent
October 28, 2024
This is an account of her flight. It has a lot of good information that I hadn't heard before
March 5, 2013
Well written and impressively detailed. The author—a pilot and aviation-failure investigator—did an exhaustive amount of research and provides a nearly minute-by-minute account of what happened after Earhart's plane went missing. A combination of human error, ego, miscommunication, poor planning, bad analysis, illogical conclusions, inferior skills, damaged equipment, and wishful thinking led searchers in the wrong direction and gave us the ending we all know: She and her navigator disappeared and died.
I was shocked at the poor planning that went into her trip. She was sending telegrams of her plans only a jump ahead of each leg of her flight. The Coast Guard cutter waiting for her in the Pacific didn't even know she had a male navigator with her, so when he made distress calls, they were ignored. She didn't choose to use Greenwich time (a huge coordination issue) until the last leg of her trip and neither she nor her navigator knew Morse code! Some evidence suggests that they made an emergency landing on a small, uninhabited island southeast of their intended target. The island got a cursory air search about a week later, and that's it. I'm still fascinated by this story and I appreciate all the careful detail that Gillespie put into his book.
I was shocked at the poor planning that went into her trip. She was sending telegrams of her plans only a jump ahead of each leg of her flight. The Coast Guard cutter waiting for her in the Pacific didn't even know she had a male navigator with her, so when he made distress calls, they were ignored. She didn't choose to use Greenwich time (a huge coordination issue) until the last leg of her trip and neither she nor her navigator knew Morse code! Some evidence suggests that they made an emergency landing on a small, uninhabited island southeast of their intended target. The island got a cursory air search about a week later, and that's it. I'm still fascinated by this story and I appreciate all the careful detail that Gillespie put into his book.
September 16, 2011
I guess part of me wants to believe this amazing woman didn't just plummet into the ocean and die, but this book makes the point that she actually survived on a small island for a time, which might be even worse. I watched on TV a special that went into details, and so I decided to pick up the book and read it to. It is an amazingly convincing thesis with no final proof, but with lots of circumstantial evidence that Amelia Earhart actually survived for a time after her plane went down. I enjoyed the book because it asks a lot of questions and doesn't just accept the easy answers.
June 7, 2016
The last stocks of the hard back edition with document DVD will be offered at the Author's lecture at the Baltimore Engineers Club on Saturday November 20, 2010.
The morning breakfast lecture is jointly sponsored by the Chesapeake INCOSE and the AIAA Mid Atlantic Chapter. This guarantees that a knowledgeable group of aviation professionals will be attending. I have known and followed the searches of Ric and his TIGHAR foundation for many years and I believe that he is a foremost champion of historic aircraft recovery and forensic research.
The morning breakfast lecture is jointly sponsored by the Chesapeake INCOSE and the AIAA Mid Atlantic Chapter. This guarantees that a knowledgeable group of aviation professionals will be attending. I have known and followed the searches of Ric and his TIGHAR foundation for many years and I believe that he is a foremost champion of historic aircraft recovery and forensic research.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews