Everyone has their passions in life and the people of Bella Energy are no different. Sometimes, our passions and hobbies are newsworthy, and this post is one of those times. Our Vice President and COO Andrew McKenna is currently in the South Pacific with the TIGHAR expedition searching for evidence to support a theory that Amelia Earhart crash landed on a small island in the South Pacific. To learn more about this expedition view the following video and read Mr. McKenna’s statement.

Solving the Amelia Earhart Mystery from TIGHAR on Vimeo.

A message from our Vice President, Andrew McKenna:

I will be participating in an aviation archaeology expedition to Nikumaroro Island in the South Pacific as a team member for the The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, AKA TIGHAR (pronounced tiger).

For the last 20+ years, TIGHAR has been investigating the idea that Amelia Earhart didn’t crash her airplane into the sea when she and her navigator Fred Noonan failed to find Howland Island during the second to last leg of her 1937 “around the world via the equator” flight. Through a process of scientific discovery, we’ve built a hypothesis that Amelia and Fred, using what navigational tools they had available, successfully flew their aircraft to another then uninhabited island called Nikumaroro, some 400 NM southeast of Howland. This hypothesis is supported by the a pattern of post loss radio receptions that appear to have originated at Nikumaroro, signs of recent habitation seen by the US Navy search flight (no they didn’t check it out, they just flew on) a partial skeleton of a castaway along with the remains of a campfire, a woman’s shoe, a sextant box, and a few other trinkets found in 1940 by early colonists, anecdotal stories of aircraft wreckage from the early days of the colony, and artifacts collected by TIGHAR over several trips to Niku that include aircraft aluminum and plexiglass that is consistent with Amelia’s Lockheed 10-E, as well as items from what we think is the final castaway camp that would indicate the presence of a westerner, possibly female, who apparently lived there for some period of time. What we don’t have is a smoking gun, and that’s why were going back.

Tags: TIGHAR