Announcements and Press
"Finding Amelia" now available on AMAZON PRIME and YouTube!
Aiken resident's search for Amelia Earhart featured in Discovery Channel documentary
Article courtesy of The Aiken Standard Newspaper
While attempting to become the first female pilot to fly around the world, Amelia Earhart disappeared in 1937 along with her twin-engine Lockheed Electra aircraft and her navigator, Fred Noonan.
Many believe the plane crashed near Howland Island in the central Pacific Ocean.
But Aiken resident Michael Carra thinks its resting place is in Papua New Guinea in the Southwestern Pacific.
“Finding Amelia,” a two-hour documentary about Carra’s 2021 expedition to search for Earhart and her aircraft, will air for the first time on the Discovery Channel at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 7, and will be shown again at midnight.
“The Discovery Channel said if it gets really great ratings, they’ll think about turning it into an episodic series,” Carra told the Aiken Standard during an Aug. 1 telephone interview.
Because he returned to Papua New Guinea in 2022 to continue his search, Carra said he has “enough footage for another four episodes already.”
Even though Carra hasn’t found the remains of Earhart, Noonan, or the Lockheed Electra, he remains optimistic.
“During the second expedition, we took a helicopter and put almost a million dollars of Lidar (light detection and ranging) equipment on it,” Carra said. We flew over an area in the jungle where we think her plane went down and located 13 targets [that merited further investigation]. That means there are 13 more stories to tell. I think they would make a great adventure series.”
Carra’s discoveries in his two expeditions have included a Boeing B-17 bomber and a Japanese Zero Fighter.
He’s also found other aircraft parts.
“Over 300 airplanes crashed into that jungle during World War II,” said Carra, who is a pilot and also an aviation and military historian.
When he was in Papua New Guinea, the conditions were grueling.
“It takes half an hour to go 30 feet because the jungle is so thick,” Carra said.
He also suffered injuries and faced the risk of disease.
“On my second expedition, I fell in a ravine and dislocated my shoulder and ruptured my Achilles tendon,” he said. “I came back from the first expedition so badly bitten that I was on three antibiotics for six weeks.”
Even so, Carra is eager to go back if he can raise the money because he is convinced Papua New Guinea is where the evidence of Earhart’s last flight is located.
“I do a lot of research, and in the Australian war archives, I found a report about a group of Australian soldiers who stumbled upon her airplane in 1945,” Carra said.
A lot of people didn’t take the story seriously, but after obtaining access to a map and other information, Carra believed a major discovery had been made.
There were numbers with the wreckage that “only correspond to one airplane in aviation history, and it’s her (Earhart’s) Lockheed Electra,” he said.
The aircraft disappeared after taking off July 7 from Lae, New Guinea, 87 years ago.
If what Carra believes is true, Earhart, at some point, decided to turn the plane around and head back instead of continuing on to her Howland Island destination that was almost halfway between Australia and Hawaii.
Howland Island is tiny, and it’s possible that Earhart and Noonan were unable to locate it.
“It is the greatest American mystery in our history,” Carra said. “I’m sure we’re going to eventually find it (Earhart’s plane). We’ve just got to get back to the jungle.”
In August 2022, a second expedition went out in search of Amelia Earhart. This expedition funded by Advance Services Productions. The expedition was once again returned to the jungles of Papua New Guinea. A film crew was contracted to film the latest adventure. Because of the cost, the trip was only for eleven days. Unfortunately, with three days of rain plus personnel injuries, the trip was cut short.
On the first expedition in 2021, we found a WW2 Japanese A6M “Zero” fighter aircraft. The aircraft was cleared of the vines and jungle debris to photograph the site. Returning eleven months later, the plane was found to be 90% covered. It should be noted that Amelia’s plane has been in the jungle for 86 years!
Using a helicopter, the 12 square mile search area was examined using LiDAR. Thirteen targets were located and will be examined on foot during the next 2025 expedition.
Regional – International Plastic Modelers Society
Model Show and Contest.
April 2024. Columbia, South Carolina.
- 1st place with his 1/35-scale diorama display of a WW2 German scene from the invasion of the Soviet Union.
- 1st place award for the 1/72 scale model of the Wernher Von Braun rocket, EMW A-9 “Amerika Rocket”. Had WW2 continued, this manned design was to bomb New York City.
- Third 1st place award for his 1/72 scale WW2 German S-100 Class Torpedo Boat.
- Each entry took between 2 and 9 months to research, build, and paint. The diorama consists of over 400 detailed pieces.
Aiken Author and Producer Delivers a Presentation at Men’s Club
January 2024 Meeting
The Aiken Senior Men’s Club met at the Woodside Country Club on Jan. 17. The speaker was Michael Carra, an Aiken resident and producer of high-profile documentaries. His latest project is a two-hour documentary on Amelia Earhart, which will appear on the Discovery Channel in the next few months.
Discovery+ Announces Expansive Slate of Documentaries for 2022
UNDISCOVERED: FINDING AMELIA (June 9, 2022)
Director: David Carr
Producers: Mark Kadin, Will Ehbrecht, Greg Spring, Michael Carra, Mary Williams
It is the greatest unsolved mystery in American history. Amelia Earhart disappears while attempting to be the first woman to fly around the world in 1937. Credible theories remain unproven, and decades of searching have turned up nothing. But now, a team has irrefutable evidence they know Amelia’s final resting place and are launching an expedition to finally bring her home.
Aiken Standard Newspaper Article
The Aiken Standard Newspaper posted this article on Sunday, February 16, 2020. Many thanks to Richard Marczewski for his submission.
Naval Order of the United States – 2019 Congress
October 22-26 – Naval Order of the United States – 2019 Congress. Michael and his wife, Mary, attended the conference in Boston, Mass.
Michael attended as a voting delegate from the Charleston, SC chapter. Mary is an associate member. The chapter was awarded top honors for 2019 and the closing evening’s gala was a special night to remember.
The Naval Order promotes, preserves, and celebrates the history of our nation’s maritime services.
SERTOMANS Society’s Meeting
The SERTOMANS Society’s recent meeting in Aiken, SC, welcomed Historian Michael Carra as the guest speaker.
IPMS – International Plastic Modelers Society Mid-Atlantic Conference
IPMS – International Plastic Modelers Society Mid-Atlantic Conference was held on June 22, 2019, in Columbia, SC.
As a new member to IPMS, Michael attended the event. He has been building scale models since he was five years old and for the first time, entered a contest.
Michael had just completed a 2 1/2 year project building a 1/200 scale diorama scene of the Battleship, U.S.S. ARIZONA berthed in Pearl Harbor the day before the December 7th, 1941 attack.
Michael won 1st place in the SHIP category, the overall award for BEST DIORAMA, and the overall award for BEST of SHOW. A stunning wonderful day not to be forgotten. The National Conference is in August, and we will be there!
IPMS – International Plastic Modelers Society National/International Conference
IPMS – International Plastic Modelers Society National/International Conference was held August 7-10, 2019 in Chattanooga, TN.
Encouraged by the Regional Judges from the June Conference, Michael took his Ship Diorama of the U.S.S. ARIZONA and entered it in the contest. Several thousand people with entries from around the world attended.
This was Michael’s first time at this event and was awarded 3rd place in the Ship Diorama category.
PALM SPRINGS AIR MUSEUM
PALM SPRINGS AIR MUSEUM – EVENT PAGE
2015 6 Dec at 1 PM to 2 PM
Pearl Harbor Program: Attack on Battleship Row Presentation by Michael Carra: To All My Friends and Family that made it out to the Palm Springs Air Museum this past Sunday, I want to thank you for your support at my presentation on the Air Attack at Pearl Harbor December 7th, 1941.
Last year, I interviewed 5 surviving veterans from that day for the book I’m writing. Three of them attended and then they invited me to their December 7th luncheon yesterday. At 93, 94, and 96 years old, I really appreciated their effort to attend! And a fourth (97 years old) made it to the luncheon! What an honor…and the 300 attendees enjoyed meeting them.
The museum surrounded the stage with planes like those that were involved that day…
MARINE CORPS LEAGUE LUNCHEON
Newsletter – 2018 6 June – Col. Carl Lewke
Marine veteran and local historian Michael Carra will provide a broad overview of U.S. submarine combat during World War II. Michael, who has served as a lecturer at the Palm Springs Air Museum on numerous occasions, also spoke to our cadets at Desert Hot Springs High School about the momentous events on 7 Dec 1941. I was very pleased when he agreed to speak during our June luncheon.
Smithsonian Channel
Seven original non-fiction stories in an all-new series to be launched on the network in the coming year.
Premiering in the first quarter of 2019, “America’s Hidden Stories” will look to give the cold case treatment to iconic moments in history, going through old records, implementing new technologies, and tracking down eye-witness testimony in an effort to resolve age-old mysteries or to alter the way some historic events are perceived. “Pearl Harbor Spies” with Michael Carra premieres March 25 at 8pm. Series is produced by Lone Wolf Media.
PALM SPRINGS AIR MUSEUM – EVENT PAGE – 2014 6 Dec at 1 PM to 2 PM
Pearl Harbor Program: Little Known Role of Japanese Mini-Subs Presentation by Michael Carra: Five mini-subs were to participate in the Pearl Harbor strike. Most never made it to their target, but the fate of one has for many years remained a mystery. Looking at a variety of new evidence, our speaker, Michael Carra suggests that the missing sub played a much larger role than anyone ever imagined.
THE DESERT SUN NEWSPAPER – Denise Goolsby – December 6, 2014
Remembering Pearl Harbor: Four Valley Vets Reflect (excerpt)
In the early morning hours of Dec. 7, 1941, while most of the nation slept, a faraway naval base in the Hawaiian Islands was being destroyed. Within two hours, after more than 350 Japanese planes bombed and strafed Pearl Harbor — where nearly the entire U.S. Navy’s Pacific Fleet was docked — battleship row had been severely battered and thousands had been killed or wounded.
But the ranks of those who bore witness to a turning point in the nation’s history is rapidly declining. There are only an estimated 1,100 to 1,200 Pearl Harbor survivors still living, according to Louella Large, National President of Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors.
The U.S. Army was responsible for the defense of the Pacific Fleet while it was in the harbor. Lt. Gen. Walter Short was the commander responsible for the defense of U.S. military installations in Hawaii at the time of the Japanese attack. “Gen. Short was obsessed with sabotage and invasion,” said local Pearl Harbor historian Mike Carra. “He has all the anti-aircraft batteries that are supposed to be around the harbor – they’re locked up behind fences and all the ammunition is in lockers that are locked up because he was worried about sabotage. Admiral (Husband) Kimmel expected — took it for granted — that his fleet was being protected while it was in the harbor.” While security was already lax during the work week, it was even more so on the weekends, which is why the Japanese, according to historical accounts, specifically chose a Sunday morning to launch its attack.
THE DESERT SUN NEWSPAPER
THE DESERT SUN NEWSPAPER – OPINION SECTION – NOVEMBER 30, 2014
Next Sunday, we commemorate National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, 73 years after a day that rocked the American soul as much as 9/11 did a generation later. The Palm Springs Air Museum, of course, will host “Pearl Harbor Program: Little Known Role of Japanese Mini-Subs.” Michael Carra will discuss how five mini-subs were to participate in the Pearl Harbor strike. Most never made it to their target, but the fate of one has for many years remained a mystery. Carra suggests the missing sub played a much larger role than anyone ever imagined. The program starts at 1 p.m. Saturday at the museum on Gene Autry Trail in Palm Springs.
International Plastic Modelers Society, Region 12 Convention in Simpsonville, SC.
On September 14, 2019, Michael attended the International Plastic Modelers Society, Region 12 Convention in Simpsonville, SC.
Michael entered a 1/72 scale model of Louis Bleriot’s 1909 Model XI airplane, which was the first airplane to cross the English Channel back in 1909. An additional 100+ scratch made parts were added to super detail the kit of only 23 parts. The kit included a miniature figure of Louis Bleriot. He is only 1 inch tall and Michael painted him right down to his mustache.
The entry was awarded 2nd place.
Contact Us
Advance Services Productions
537 Wentworth Circle, Aiken, South Carolina 29803, United States
Phone (310) 749.7388
Hours
Monday – Friday: 9am – 5pm
Saturday: By appointment
Sunday: Closed