Kickstarter Campaign Kicks to Find Amelia Earhart's Lost Plane Electra
Seventy-six long years have passed, but the disappearance of famous pilot and world's first female aviator Amelia Earheart remains a mystery. To unlock this mystery, Dana Trimmer, a pilot and a four-time America's Cup sailor spearheaded a Kickstarter campaign, saying that the plane may have already been found in the depths of the Pacific Ocean.
Amelia Earhart and navigator, Capt. Freed Noonan disappeared in June 2, 1937 while riding Earhart's twin-engine plane, the Lockheed Electra. Hours after the disappearance, the most expensive searches led by the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard were made to retrieve the plane and the pilots, but the efforts all went in vain. The cut short flight aimed to have a round-the-world trip.
One of the most daring flights of the Electra was the 2,555 mile flight from New Guinea to the Howland Island in the Pacific Ocean, which is halfway between Hawaii and Australia according to Trimmer in a report.
Based on the last transmission made by Earhart, she and Noonan were already close to the Howland Island where the U.S. Coast Guard ship Itasca was waiting for them for refuelling, but the Lockheed Electra went missing, leaving one of the greatest mystery in the history of aviation.
Trimmer believes that the Electra crashed near the Howland Island, contrary to other several theories of the disappearance, such as the Gardner Island Theory, and the Conspiracy Theory that speculates that the pilots were abducted. Other speculations believe that Earhart was a secret agent in the US, and other suggest that Earhart returned home safely and changed her identity. None until now has been proven correct.
Earhart and Noonan were declared dead on January 5, 1939, almost two years after the plane went missing.
It's only recently that Trimmer sparked up the case once again as he launched a Kickstarter campaign that aims to generate funds of $ 2 million to verify his previous discovery.
Back in 1999, Trimmer led a $1 million worth of sea exploration that he wanted to pursue again today if the funding allows. His studies of sonar data from his previous searches made him believe he has already found Earhart's Electra.
A team of documenters and researchers tapped by Williamson and Associates, which is famous for historic shipwreck discoveries, will investigate and report the progress of the search when the Trimmer's campaign reaches its $1,960,000 goal. The said team will be on a 40-day trip from Samoa making daily progress reports to Kickstarter backers, with a live video streaming intended to be compiled for a full documentary regarding the expedition.
As of this writing, the Kickstarter campaign already reached $26,594 in pledge, still far of its $1,960,000 goal. The project still has 29 days to culminate.