Talk:Elgen Long

Early Life?
Didn't Elgen just recently receive a diploma from Marshfield High School?

Failed search efforts at Howland Island
With regard to Elgen Long's belief that Amelia Earhart landed her plane west of Howland Island, there was another search effort around Howland Island in 2009 involving the Waitts Institute. This time, the expedition was focused on the west side of Howland and Baker Island, whereas the Nauticos expeditions of 2002 and 2006 and the 1999 search by Williamson and Associates focused on the northwest flank of Howland Island (see http://wid.waittinstitute.org/search-for-amelia for portion of surveyed ocean floor). However, the Waitts expedition failed to find NR16020 on the ocean floor, so Elgen Long may have to modify his opinion about where the Electra hit the water. In short, the failure of these four expeditions to Howland Island has prompted other researchers to suggest that Amelia Earhart misjudged her position while en route to Howland and turned around and went back to New Guinea, and it also may reinforce the hypothesis that NR16020 landed on Nikumaroro after weather systems impeded Earhart from flying straight towards Howland Island. So far, the metal artifacts collected by TIGHAR are strikingly similar to components of the Lockheed Electra and while the latest TIGHAR expedition has discovered a debris field that is far from the Norwich City wreck, the wreckage found off Nikumaroro has to be collected and examined in a future expedition (planned for 2014) to prove that Amelia Earhart died on Nikumaroro. So far, Elgen Long has not commented on the results of the Niku VII expedition, but he may change his mind about the Nikumaroro hypothesis if the debris field turns out be from NR16020 (for instance, the round blob of debris looks like the landing gear of a plane and in no way resembles any of the parts of the Norwich City (flashlights, annular-shaped rescue equipment, etc). 68.4.28.33 (talk) 17:28, 18 December 2012 (UTC)Vahe Demirjian