New discoveries may locate Earhart plane

Civil Air Patrol Crazy Horse Squadron had a special meeting on Thursday, Aug. 16, when Jeff Glickman, forensic imaging specialist, gave a presentation about the decades-old search for Amelia Earhart’s plane.

Glickman was one of many other The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) members featured in a Discovery Channel documentary about the search for the plane that disappeared in 1937. Glickman was in the area visiting family and gave the presentation as a favor to Crazy Horse Squadron Capt. Sharon Moad.

Glickman was asked 15 years ago by Ric Gillespie, executive director of TIGHAR, to help with the case by looking at old photographs taken in the area Earhart was believed to have landed. The photos were taken by Eric Bevington in an effort to expand the British Empire through a series of small islands just south of Howland Island, where Earhart was expected to land to refuel the aircraft.

Glickman was able to identify a small object in the photo, which was no larger than a grain of rice. Glickman pored over the small image for nearly two years before tracking down a larger copy of the original photograph. In April 2010, Oxford sent a digital scan of the photo to Glickman from which he was able to measure the object at 36” tall. He later found the object to match part of the tire on Earhart’s plane.

“I started studying the landing gear of her plane and even traveled to a museum in Arizona that had the same model and make of Amelia’s plane,” Glickman said.