Ted Waitt: Why Amelia?
Waitt Institute founder, Ted Waitt, talks about his interest in Amelia Earhart’s story and legacy and why the Waitt Institute was interested in searching for her lost Electra.

The CATALYST 2 mission was carefully documented with video and still photography to tell the story of this challenging mission. Distributed throughout the site, including the detailed Mission Log, you’ll see the interviews, stories and photographs telling the story of the CATALYST 2 mission. Even without the historic discovery of the plane, the videos document what we believe is the largest ever privately-funded deep sea surveys and other highlights of 90 days at sea by team. You can find more videos listed to the right and in the categories below:

AUV Videos

Our state-of-the art Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) were the key to being able to survey over 2,000 square miles in the relatively short time we had on site. Affectionately known as Ginger and Mary Ann, the two vehicles flew over 7,000 linear miles of ocean floor at an average depth of 5,200 meters (over three miles) at 3.5 knots. And, while they had their good days and bad days, these AUVs are revolutionary for underwater searches.

___________________________________________________

Operations

This is a look at the nuts and bolts of conducting 24 hour operations spread over 90 days at sea during the Spring of 2009. Highlights include the process involved of laying out the boundaries of the areas that would be covered by the AUVs and the ways in which we reacted and processed periodic discoveries.

___________________________________________________

Life

There were some moments during the mission that weren’t all work. This collection of videos shows some of those moments from an Umu feast on Pago Pago to a tour of of our home away from home, the Research Vessel Seward Johnson.

___________________________________________________

Planning

These videos show the Waitt Institute’s planning and approach to the Search for Amelia including doing new research on the final flight and what may have happened to determine our search area, and then careful planning to efficiently manage the search. While we were near Howland Island, we were able to fly the approach in conditions similar to those Amelia and Fred would have encountered. After seeing how difficult the island was to see from the air at that time of day we were able to change our plans and add two search boxes closer to shore.

___________________________________________________

Interviews about Amelia and searching for her

Some of the crew talk about looking for Amelia.