John Fray on Nov. 24, 2024:
The November 24, 1971, Hijacking by Dan Cooper Has Never Been Solved After 53 Years.

Most researchers believe that the hijacker perished shortly after he jumped out of the plane, probably because he was not able to deploy the parachute pack which he had donned. A small segment of the investigators thinks that he may have survived, but he lost the ransom money in the turbulence of the tail stream of the aircraft.

As for the hijacker's identity, his DNA exists in a liquid solution currently being analyzed in a laboratory. The solution was derived from a filter element of a machine which vacuumed trace particulates from the clip-on necktie which he left behind on the aircraft. Yes, other individuals have handled the necktie over the years, and their DNA profiles are also contained in the solution. There is a reasonable chance that advanced technology will be able to isolate each of the DNA profiles in the solution and eventually home in on that particular profile which is that of the hijacker.








John Fray's Comments on the Mystery of the Disappearance of Amelia Earhart


Objects in the Lagoon of Nikumaroro Island.

John Fray on Monday, Jan. 27, 2025, 2:00 AM

THE WRECKAGE OF AMELIA EARHART'S PLANE HAS BEEN PINPOINTED ON NIKUMARORO ISLAND.

In 2020, a web sleuth was examining satellite images of Nikumaroro Island. He discovered something there which should not have been. In the lagoon, multiple long metal objects were plainly visible on its east side, directly across from the channel leading to the ocean. Word got around, resulting in an intense effort to examine images dating as far back as 1937. Sure enough, the objects appeared, to varying degrees of clarity, in the archived images. As it turns out, a typhoon in 2015 caused the objects to be revealed from their mucky resting places long enough for the image which the web sleuth discovered in 2020 to be snapped. An expedition is planned for this year to make positive identification of the aircraft. As far as I am concerned, the mystery is solved. On July 2, 1937, Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan landed on Nikumaroro where they survived as castaways for at least five days before perishing.

The above image shows the Taraia Peninsula on the lagoon. Two long, blurry images can be seen in the water. They are the fuselage and rear wings of the plane. For reference, there is an overlay of scale sketches of those two components of the plane.








What Became of Flight 19?

On December 5, 1945, a unit (i.e., a small squadron) of five torpedo bombers flew east from Fort Lauderdale, FL, on a routine training exercise. As planned, they dropped their mock ordinance at a location of small islands in the Atlantic Ocean about 70 miles east of their departure site. Thereafter, the unit flew another 70 miles east to a point at which it was to turn left and proceed NNW a distance of 100 miles (over Big Bahama) and then turn sharp left and proceed SW 130 miles back to Fort Lauderdale. Something went wrong. The squadron disappeared. It is thought that the squadon commander mistook a small group of Bahama islands for the Florida Keys and took a path northeast hoping to find mainland Florida. Contributing to the confusion was a sudden storm which diminished visibility. Apparently, the planes ran out of fuel north of the Bahamas and about 200 miles east of Daytona Beach, and they ditched in the Atlantic Ocean. Interestingly, at sometime in 1963, old wreckage of a Navy plane containing the remains of two crew members was found in a swampy area near Sebastian, Florida. The rumour is that the plane was from Flight 19. The Navy and Marines have never issued a definitive statement as to the identity of the wreckage and its crew.