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Could it be either sonar distortion or that the wings were damaged in the crash?

Speaking of which, it looks pretty intact, which means (armchair air crash specialist here) it wouldn't have crashed but done an emergency landing on the water.

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That would match with the leading mis-navigation theory. She and her navigator were fine and healthy, as was the plane. They were looking for the island to land on, but had messed up the navigation and were sufficiently off-course. There were US Navy boats in the area of the island that heard their radio calls. There was no emergency -- they just reported to be searching for the land that they should've found. Presumably they flew until they ran out of fuel and likely set it down in the water as gently as possible.

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