Finding Amelia Earhart: A Palm Springs Air Museum expedition aimed at solving the mystery uncovers WWII aircraft

PALM SPRINGS, Calif. (KESQ) - A Palm Springs Air Museum sponsored expedition aimed at solving one of the great mysteries in aviation discovered five WWII aircraft including two B-17s in the jungle on Papua New Guinea.

Michael Carra, Aviation and Military Historian, led the expedition, his third in hopes of finding the crash site of Amelia Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan.

"We're on the right track, and we have probably a much better theory with actual evidence and a better chance of finding her than any of these other theories," Carra says.

Meanwhile, the trip was also focused on uncovering military aircraft, and it paid big dividends.

The two B-17s were especially important to the expedition and they held memorials in the jungle to the men who lost their lives aboard those airplanes. 

"I had a very emotional moment on both aircraft, especially the one that we couldn't get to because it's in the side of a mountain, and it's a sheer cliff, and it's, it's a good 600 feet down," Carra says.

Carra will present "Lost Aircraft of the Pacific War" on November 8th at 1:00 p.m. at the Palm Springs Air Museum.

Hear his stories and see his videos and pictures of the expedition along with an exact replica of a B-17E nose section that will serve as a monument, including artifacts from the expedition.