Spotlight - 14.2019

6 Spotlight 14/2019 IN THE SPOTLIGHT

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IN THE SPOTLIGHT

NEWS AND VIEWS

MICRONESIA

Still at sea EASY^ US

Nikumaroro, an island in the western Pacific, is very small and im-

possibly remote. Its claim to fame is Amelia Earhart. The Ameri-

can aviator is thought to have crash-landed there with her naviga-

tor, Fred Noonan, on July 2, 1937, on a trip that would have made

her the first woman to fly around the world. No one has ever

found their remains or the plane, pictured with Earhart, above.

As The New York Times reports, Robert Ballard, the marine ex-

plorer who found the wreck of the Titanic, conducted a thorough,

high-tech search of the island and the waters around it late this

summer, an expedition that has had some unexpected results.

The new search was inspired by a photo taken near the island’s

coast by a British colonial officer in 1937, three months after Ear-

hart and Noonan had disappeared. In 2010, a forensic imaging

expert at The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery

(Tighar) identified a blur in the photo as the landing gear of a

Lockheed Model 10E Electra — Earhart’s plane.

Ballard did not find the plane, but his work has renewed inter-

est in a number of human bones that had been found on the is-

land years ago. To learn more, see Expedition Amelia, a new Nation-

al Geographic film about the latest work to solve the mystery.

at sea [Et (si:]

, verloren; auch:

ahnungslos, planlos

aviator [(eIvieIt&r]

, Flieger(in)

blur [bl§:]

, Flecken

claim [kleIm]

, Anspruch

crash-land [(krÄS lÄnd]

, bruchlanden

landing gear

[(lÄndIN gI&r]

, Fahrgestell

remains [ri(meInz]

, Überreste

remote [ri(moUt]

, entlegen

wreck [rek]

, Wrack