New Earhart movie

Great point Tom. That makes sense as the Itasca could hear Amelia's transmission but in theory she could not hear the Itasca's message.

The tragic thing is she may very likely have lost her receive antennae on takeoff from New Guinea for her leg to Howland Island. Apparently, the Coast Guard ship sent there to help out could hear her and tried to give her DF bearings but she could not hear them.

www.youtube.com/watch

Perhaps you're remembering Clive Cussler.  The Wiki article gives a short over-view of the disappearance and subsequent investigations.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_White_Bird#cite_note-bangor-33

Reports of wing parts from the Coast Guard and another ship:

http://aotus.blogs.archives.gov/2013/06/04/aiding-in-the-search-for-the-white-bird/

As to the 1980s searches, I'm not sure I could put much stock in eye-witness testimony 50 years after the event.

What could clinch it would be finding the aluminum gas tanks from the aircraft.  If they were empty, they had a good chance of floating, at least for a while.  If on land, they would be the obvious identifiable objects.

GAF, It's been a while since I saw that story but the wood, size, shape etc pointed out to a very strong possibility of being the same as Nungesser's machine. I wish I could remember all the details the gentleman described. For all we know he too crashed in the ocean, never to be found.

Considering how many SE-5s, Nieuports, and even a few German aircraft were imported after the war, finding a wing-spar made out of wood from Europe might not be so rare.

There are so many stories about finding wreckage of "The White Bird" that they span from the coast of France to the woods of Maine.

"Major modifications included the reinforcement of the plywood fuselage, removing two of the forward cockpits with the main cockpit widened to allow Nungesser and Coli to sit side-by-side. The wingspan was also increased to approximately 15 m (49 ft). In adding two additional fuel tanks mounted aft of the firewall, the three fuel tanks held a total of 4,025 litres (1,056 gallons) of gasoline."

The PL.8 was modified from the Levasseur PL.4 French recon plane.  A couple of things to note about this was that the PL.8 aircraft was never tested with a full load of gasoline, and that the PL.7 (also modified from the PL.4) was grounded in 1931 after two disintegrated in flight, which was attributed to vibration.

I find this to be a fascinating subject. Many theories have been suggested but I personally think she and Noonan ran out of fuel and went into the drink due to navigational errors.

While on the aviation subject, I remember watching a show years ago about a gentleman that is some kind of air crash expert. According to him, he discovered the remains of a wing spar somewhere in New England. This wing spar was constructed of some type of wood only found in Europe and believes it matched the dimensions of the wing of Charles Nungesser's aircraft. He believes Nunesser beat Lindbergh at crossing the Atlantic but he disappeared in the attempt. Another mystery that will never be solved just like Amelia's.

Here's a link to the "trailer'. Unfortunately it's going to be for sale.

http://news.yahoo.com/short-last-film-amelia-earhart-surfaces-163923566.html

Link?