Chasing Earhart

S3 Ep23: Recovery: A Conversation with Bill Snavely

Chasing Earhart

Show Notes

In August of 2017, I helped introduce the world to a man that had been quietly working on an idea that could blow the wheels off the Amelia Earhart/Fred Noonan story. He’d recently put out a book via the Paragon Agency called Tracking Amelia Earhart: Her Flightpath to the End. I happened to know the publisher of that book, Doug Westfall, who I’d met just a few months earlier and it was at that meeting that I first learned of tonight’s guest.

Once I got his number, I gave him a call, and then I read that book. There aren’t too many moments in this whole thing that I can remember my exact thoughts at an exact point in time. But this one? I know because I wrote it down. A singular question. And here it is. “Why doesn’t everybody know about this?!”

At the end of tonight, you’ll know two things. One - we have an aircraft off the coast of Buka, sitting a little over 100 feet down with a remarkable set of similarities to the holy grail of aviation. That’s a fact. And it’s inescapable now. And two - we’re gonna go get it. And in doing so, we’re going to mount the most incredible cross theory expedition this case has ever seen. They do say it takes a village.

You’ve heard from everyone around him, some of the key names involved in Buka III, and you’ve even heard from some detractors who’ve certainly shared their skepticism on what’s become a very curious wreck site in an area of the world that nobody had ever looked in, until he started looking over 15 years ago.

We have a plane to catch.

Welcome back to Chasing Earhart. From Salisbury, Maryland, this is Bill Snavely.

LINKS

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SHOW NOTES & FURTHER READING

Project Blue Angel's Official Website (Updating Soon!)

Tracking Amelia Earhart: Her Flightpath to the End @ Specialbooks.com

Lost in Flight: Amelia Earhart Giving Cover as a Decoy for a Spy Plane @ Specialbooks.com

Tracking Amelia Earhart: Her Flightpath to the End @ Chasing Earhart

Buka III: Bill Snavely, Chris Williamson & the Dependable Engines Association @ Chasing Earhart

The BEA Official Website

More from Chasing Earhart

Oct 13, 2026

An update on the Earhart/Noonan case from Chris Williamson.

Jul 3, 2026

LINKS:

May 2, 2026

“I don’t think there is any closure. I think every generation if going to investigate her again.”

See all episodes →