Aemelia Earhart
The Mystery of Aemelia Earhart has captured the imagination of young and old, amateur and professional, since she disappeared on July 2, 1937 on her flight over the Pacific which would complete her around-the-world flight - the longest (following the equatorial route) and the first by a woman.
From the time of her first ride in an airplane as a child, Aemelia Earhart was hooked on flying. Her passion led her to break flight records and become a public celebrity. In one of her letters, she hoped that the around the world flight would finally rid her of her compulsion to fly and she could settle down. Though she did not survive it, it was indeed her last flight. She vanished into the Pacific Ocean 24 hours after leaving Lae, New Guinea.
Crossing the 2,500 mile Pacific was the most dangerous part of her flight. The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Itasca was standing off Howland Island for several days to act as a radio contact for her. Radio communications in the area were very poor and the Itasca was overwhelmed with commercial radio traffic as a result of the celebrated flight.
She and her navigator, Fred Noonan, left with 1100 gallons of fuel, good for around 24 hours of flight (the flight should have been about 19 hours), but she ran out of fuel 2 hours early. She carried as much as possible. The plane was so heavy on takeoff she wasn't sure even to the end if she could get it off the runway.
Their intended destination was Howland Island, a tiny piece of land a few miles long, 20 feet high, and 2, 556 miles away. Their last positive position report and sighting were over the Nubian Islands, about 800 miles into the flight.
After 4 hours and 18 minutes, she called in and reported her speed and height - the right speed and height for optimal fuel consumption. Management tables had been prepared for Earhart by Lockheed's Kelly Johnson. She signed off with her signature line, "everything OK." There is disagreement over what happened next.
The theory put forward by Elgen M. Long is that a combination of weather and equipment failure forced her to use more fuel than expected and come in toward Howland Island too far north. First a storm forced her to go higher to avoid it. The climbing used a great deal of fuel and then she had to fight a strong headwind. This also used more fuel. After 10 hours they spotted a ship, which they assumed was the half way marker. Instead it was probably a different ship farther north. She spoke to Leo Bellarts on the Itaska but she was apparently unable to hear him as he attempted to guide her in. He sent morse code, but she had left her morse code equipment behind. She was 100 miles from Howland Island but her radio direction finder was malfunctioning. If it was clear they could have seen Howland Island from 50 feet or more if high enough and they would almost certainly have found it. But because of the weather they could not find it. She sent her last message giving her position as she plunged into the water. As she reached to crank the transmitter, the engine coughed. The Long theory is that they died on impact or drowned.
Another popular theory is that they landed on the island of Nikumaroro in the Pheonix Islands, 350 miles southeast of Howland Island and fended for themselves for serveral months until they succumbed to injury or disease. Improvised tools and bits of Plexiglas that are consistent with that of an Electra window were found on the island.
A few theorists reckon that she Earhart was spying on Japan and had been captured and executed. This theory has been discounted by the American authorities and press.
A rumour claimed that she was one of many women sending messages on Tokyo Rose, an English-language Japanese propaganda station designed to attack the Allies' morale.
An Australian aircraft engineer said he found a map that showed Earhart and Noonan may have turned round to try and refuel but crashed before getting to an airstrip.
The most whacky theory is that she was still alive and had a different identity.
A sequence of events
June 1, 1937
Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, begin a projected 29,000-mile trip around the globe, taking off from Miami. Before leaving her next stop, Puerto Rico, Earhart says, "I have a feeling there is just about one more good flight left in my system and I hope this trip is it. Anyway, when I have finished this job, I mean to give up long-distance 'stunt' flying."
June 30, 1937
After 22,000 miles, Earhart and Noonan land in Lae, New Guinea. Their next leg is the longest and most dangerous of the trip, a 2,550-mile flight to tiny Howland Island.
July 2, 1937
Earhart and Noonan leave Lae. About 19 hours later, the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Itasca, sent to Howland Island to help guide the flight, receives a transmission from Earhart: "KHAQQ to Itasca. We must be on you but cannot see you. But gas is running low. Been unable to reach you by radio." About an hour later, Earhart relays her rough coordinates to Itasca. Then silence. About two hours later, Coast Guard officials decide that Earhart ran out of gas and landed in the ocean. The search begins. President Roosevelt sends 10 naval ships, more than 60 aircraft, and some 3,000 people to hunt for Earhart, at an estimated cost of $4 million.
July 18, 1937
The U.S. calls off the search.
October 1940
Gerard Gallagher, the British colonial administrator of Gardner Island, an uninhabited atoll now called Nikumaroro, south of Howland, recovers a partial human skeleton, a woman's shoe, and an empty sextant box at what appears to be a former castaway camp, complete with the remnants of a campfire and turtle, clam shell, and bird remains.
April 1941
A British doctor in Fiji examines the bones and declares that they belonged to a 5-foot-6-inch white male. Later, two forensic anthropologists revisit the doctor's recorded measurements and determine that the bones belonged to a taller white female, like Earhart. The bones disappear in Fiji in 1941.
May 26, 1959
California resident Josephine Blanco Akiyama tells the San Mateo Times that as a child on the island of Saipan, she saw Japanese soldiers take Earhart into custody in July 1937, and learned later that they had executed Earhart. A similar conspiracy theory, which had circulated since 1942, posits that Earhart was captured by the Japanese in the Marshall Islands, possibly because she was a U.S. spy.
July 1, 1960
A CBS News team unveils a generator they brought back from Saipan, claiming it's from Earhart's airplane. CBS reporter Don Mozely says his team "found at least a dozen natives who remember seeing the famous aviatrix crash-land in the water in 1937, watched her taken to jail by the Japanese, and then disappear."
November 1988
TIGHAR launches the Earhart Project to conclusively solve the mystery of Earhart's disappearance, "according to accepted academic standards and using sound scientific methodology." They soon embrace the theory that Earhart landed on Nikumaroro and survived for a while after the crash.
March-April 2002
Maryland-based deep-sea search outfit Nauticos does a sonar scan of the area off Howland Island where it believes Earhart crashed. Nauticos scans 630 square miles of ocean floor off Howland, then another big chunk in 2006, but finds nothing.
March 20, 2012
TIGHAR's Gillespie announces the Earhart Project's 10th expedition to Nikumaroro, bolstered by an enhanced (but still blurry) photo a British soldier took in October 1937, apparently showing a plane's landing gear sticking out of the water. This 10-day expedition in July will involve sonar and a robotic sea vehicle, and will boast Titanic discoverer Bob Ballard as an adviser. TIGHAR's nine previous trips to Nikumaroro have uncovered several artifacts they believe belonged to Earhart and Noonan, including makeup, paneling from an airplane, a possible finger bone fragment, and a metal map box and shoe parts that match up with items featured in photos of Earhart taken before her flight.
If accepted, it seems maybe Amelia’s disappearance will be finally solved.