Press Release: Amelia Earhart Search

Press Release

November 2, 1999
For Immediate Release
Contact Person:
Lynn Jourdan (207) 967.0666

PBS's NOVA, Ocean Exploration Company, Book Authors, Collaborate on Search for Amelia Earhart

Dateline - NOVA, the long-running PBS science series, and Nauticos Corporation, an underwater exploration company based in Hanover, Maryland, today announced that they are working with Elgen M. Long and Marie K. Long, authors of Amelia Earhart - The Mystery Solved (Simon & Schuster), a newly published book, to fund and carry out a search for Earhart's airplane on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. The details of the search plans are confidential.

Elgen Long, winner of the Gold Air Medal for his own solo around-the-world flight in 1971, and his wife, Marie, will be discussing the book on NBC's Today show on November 3, 1999. Mr. Long will lead the expedition to prove his and his wife's theory about where the Earhart plane lies, provided sufficient funds can be raised.

NOVA, produced by WGBH in Boston, is the longest running science program on American television and the most-watched science documentary series in the world. In its 26 years on PBS, the program has won virtually every conceivable television award. This year the program was honored with what many consider the highest honor in broadcast journalism, the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award's Gold Baton.

Nauticos, formerly known as Meridian Sciences, develops ocean technology for the Navy, oil and gas, and telecommunication industries, and conducts deep-sea operations in search of objects lost in the ocean. The company has had a number of recent successes in deep-ocean discovery. In 1995, the company found the World War II Japanese submarine I-52 at 17,000 feet, about the same depth Earhart's plane is believed to lie. Last spring the company found the Israeli sub DAKAR at 10,000 feet in the Mediterranean. Last month, Nauticos announced the discovery of wreckage from Japanese aircraft carriers sunk at the Battle of Midway in 1942, working in collaboration with the U.S. Naval Oceanographic Office. Nauticos' president David Jourdan has been honored as Maryland's Small Business Person of the Year and the regional Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year.

More details will be released as plans for the operation are finalized.

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