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Epoch Times
10-05-2025
- General
- Epoch Times
What Really Happened to Amelia Earhart?
Amelia Earhart began her famous flight around the world on May 20, 1937. Departing from Oakland, California, in her Lockheed Electra, she traveled east across the United States. Her flight path took her south to South America, across the Atlantic Ocean to Africa, over Asia, and to Australia. On July 2, 1937, she left Lae, New Guinea. There were only three more stops to make. She would land at Howland Island to refuel before proceeding to Honolulu, Hawaii, and then back to Oakland. Out of a total of 28,595 miles, she ended up completing more than 24,000 miles, or 85 percent, of her journey. She was close to the finish line. But she never made it to Howland Island. American aviator Amelia Earhart smiles May 22, 1932 upon arriving in London, England having become the first woman to fly across the Atlantic alone. Getty Images Competing Theories What happened? The most commonly accepted explanation is that Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, ran out of fuel and crashed somewhere in the central Pacific Ocean. Other theories, however, suggest that she didn't die at all. Eyewitnesses say that a nurse matching Earhart's physical description popped up a few years later on Guadalcanal. Another story goes that she made her way back to the United States and lived out her days under an assumed identity. As biographer Doris L. Rich put it, 'No one has been able to prove beyond doubt how why, where, and when Amelia Earhart disappeared' The Japanese Capture Hypothesis The most provocative theory about Earhart's whereabouts asserts that the Japanese captured her during an espionage mission ordered by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. This was the assertion of journalist Adela Rogers St. Johns in her 1974 book 'Some Are Born Great.' According to St. Johns, Earhart's around-the-world flight was just a cover story to discover how far along the Japanese were in their plans to attack Pearl Harbor. Related Stories 11/2/2016 6/2/2013 St. Johns met with Earhart only a few minutes before she left Oakland on her final flight. 'Don't worry about me,' Earhart told St. Johns. It was the last thing she said before taking off. St. Johns was a friend of Earhart's. Knowing her as she did, she considered the statement strange. 'I knew this couldn't be just another flight,' St. Johns wrote. She thought Earhart seemed to be telling her, 'This one is different, but always remember: I know what I'm doing.' St. Johns' suspicions were confirmed when a Marine officer later showed her 'secret files of the United States Navy.' She claimed to have seen the orders from President Roosevelt 'with my own eyes.' St. Johns also claimed that the Navy has kept these files under lock and key. A counterargument to this hypothesis is that Earhart was too high-profile to ever carry out such a mission successfully. Her around-the-world flight was widely broadcasted, and the public was tracking her every move. Everywhere she landed journalists were greeting her. Earhart's celebrity status would have jeopardized the secrecy that a spy mission required. But is the Japanese capture theory so unbelievable? Earhart's great contemporary, the author and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, suffered a fatal crash several years after Earhart. He was on a reconnaissance mission over German-occupied France. His fame was no detriment to his spying. President Roosevelt, a friend of Earhart's, denied ever sending her on such a mission. It is a fact that politicians cover up government secrets all the time, and some 'conspiracy theories' end up being conspiracy facts in hindsight. Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan before their disappearance in 1937. Their fates are still unknown. Public Domain Numerous Eyewitness Accounts Other firsthand observers support St. Johns's Japanese capture theory. A New York Times article dated July 2, 1960 reported that, according to eyewitness accounts, Earthart and Noonan were taken prisoner on the island of Saipan. Natives of the island claimed seeing the famous pilot being held captive there before she was, apparently, executed. Thomas E. Devine, a U.S. Army postal sergeant, says he witnessed Earhart's Electra being burned on Saipan in July 1944, following the capture of the island by American forces. He argues the plane was destroyed on the orders of the U.S. Secretary of the Navy. Also during this time, a Marine, Pvt. Robert E. Wallack, discovered a locked safe in one of Saipan's administrative buildings. Inside it was a 'brown leather attaché case' containing maps, permits, and reports related to Earhart's final flight. Wallack turned the case over to a naval officer. Critics of this hypothesis point out that Saipan is geographically remote from Earhart's intended destination of Howland Island. How would she have gotten there? One theory is that Earhart and Noonan crash-landed in the Marshall Islands and were later transported to Saipan. Scraps of metal discovered on the Milli Atoll may offer a clue. The corroded metal could be part of Earhart's landing gear that broke off during the crash. Since the Japanese never made an official report of their capture, and the American Navy has supposedly covered theirs up, these eyewitness accounts are all we have to go on. While far from being proof, the sheer number of independent eyewitnesses make the hypothesis difficult to dismiss outright. George Palmer Putnam talks on the telephone with the White House asking for aid in the search effort for his missing wife, aviatrix Amelia Earhart, in Oakland, Ca., on July 2, 1937. Navy commander V.H. Ragsdale, Naval reserve, Oakland airport, stands by. Earhart disappeared during her flight over the Pacific. AP Photo The Castaway Hypothesis Another theory is that Earhart and Noonan overshot Howland Island and landed on the Nikumaroro Atoll, formerly Gardner Island. Although the island is uninhabited, a partial human skeleton was discovered there, along with a sextant box, skincare products, and a shoe matching Earhart's size. While the whereabouts of the bones are unknown, some of their measurements were recorded. Using a computer program, forensic anthropologists at the University of Tennessee compared the bone measurements to Earhart's known measurements. That included her height, shoe size, tailoring measurements. The program computed that the bones were more similar to Earhart than to 99 percent of other individuals. Among the skincare products were five fragments of a small glass jar. When reconstructed, it matched the size and shape of 'Dr. Berry's Freckle Ointment,' a brand dating from the 1930s. Earhart had freckles and disliked them. While the translucent glass the jar is made of doesn't match the opaque glass in other samples of that brand, the jar's interior contained traces of mercury, the active ingredient in the freckle ointment. Additionally, Earhart's last-known radio transmission was sent from the vicinity of Nikumaroro. Did Earhart and Noonan become castaways there and die from a lack of fresh water? Final Comments On each stage of her final flight, Earhart sent her letters, diary entries, and charts to her husband, G.P. Putnam. 'When I go,' said Earhart in her book 'Last Flight,' 'I'd like best to go in my plane. Quickly.' Hopefully she got her wish. It's painful to imagine Earhart awaiting execution in a prison camp or dying of thirst on a desert island. An aerial view of the island of Nikumaroro, which may be Amelia Earhart's final resting place. The "Seven Site" in the image is where human bones and evidence of habitation were found. Public Domain All things being equal, the simplest explanation tends to be the correct one. That's what Occam's Razor suggests, anyway. Running out of fuel remains the most likely scenario, and it's hard to dismiss the bone measurements and freckle cream. But the human mind will always be attracted to mystery. Simple explanations don't capture the imagination like an exciting theory about undertaking a spy mission. Until Earhart's physical bones are recovered for DNA analysis (likely never), conjectures will continue to swirl. What arts and culture topics would you like us to cover? Please email ideas or feedback to
National Geographic
06-05-2025
- General
- National Geographic
Amelia Earhart's life is way more interesting than her mysterious death
From a curious Midwestern girl to a legendary aviator, Amelia Earhart's life was a daring pursuit of freedom, flight, and self-definition. Amelia Earhart with her airplane. Earhart was an American aviatrix, making history as the first woman to cross Atlantic. Photograph by Bettmann, Contributor, Getty Images When Amelia Earhart stepped into the cockpit of her Lockheed Electra in June 1937, her sights were set on an accomplishment no woman had ever made—a female-piloted solo flight around the globe. Amelia Earhart at age six months old (left) and at seven-years-old (right). Earhart was born in Atchison, Kansas and grew up to defy gender norms of the time. Photograph by Keystone-France, Contributor, Getty Images Newspaper reporters crowded around the plane, documenting everything from her blue eyes to her bobbed hair to her pre-flight banter about her airplane's fuel capacity and speed. Though many of the reporters asked about the potential danger of her trip, she shrugged off their questions. 'It is to be a safe and sane flight along scheduled airlines,' she assured them—a 27,000 mile journey that would take her to five continents. The lauded female flyer would never complete the ambitious task. She and her plane disappeared later that month, and the details of her final resting place remain one of the greatest unsolved mysteries of modern times. But the flying pioneer is remembered for more than her mysterious end. Here's how Amelia Earhart changed flight forever as history's best-known female aviator. Amelia Earhart's adventurous childhood Born in Atchison, Kansas, in 1897 to Edwin and Amy Earhart, Amelia Mary Earhart was the oldest of two daughters. Her father had risen from a modest background to a career as an attorney, and her mother was part of a socially prominent local family that prioritized education and philanthropy. Amy was an adventurer herself, solo climbing a Colorado mountain as a young woman, and some family histories claim she was denied a college education by her traditional father. Amy didn't want that fate for her daughters. 'I advocate for every girl training along some line so she has something she can do to support herself,' Amy wrote in 1944. Bulgaria's cultural capital And so Amy's girls flouted convention at a young age by wearing bloomers instead of skirts as they played sports outside. 'Unfortunately I lived at a time when girls were still girls,' Earhart later wrote in her 1932 autobiography, remembering that she and her sisters were seen as anomalies for their energetic athleticism and interest in a world beyond Kansas. The world the girls grew up in was deeply conflicted about women's growing social roles. Women's rights were rapidly expanding, and women would gain the right to vote during Amelia's twenties. But many Americans were skeptical of women's growing participation in realms they considered 'unladylike'—public places once reserved for men only. Instead of prioritizing marriage and childbirth, Amelia wanted a career and freedom. But options were limited so Earhart went into service work, first as a nurse's aide in a Canadian military hospital during World War I, then as a social worker in 1925. Amelia Earhart holds a motorized scooter on Oct. 22, 1935. Earhart was active growing up and frequently played sports outside with her sister. Photograph by Corbis, Getty Images Amelia Earhart helps test a commercial parachute training device in Prospertown, New Jersey. Earhart's daring personality drove her to break records in the aviation industry while also spreading awareness of the safety in air travel. Photograph by Bettmann, Contributor, Getty Images Amelia Earhart takes flight Social work was considered a respectable career for a woman at the time. But Earhart had another, less socially acceptable passion on the side—aviation. She had grown up alongside the fledgling field, which exploded after the Wright Brothers' successful first flight in 1903. Amelia saw her first airplane at a fair in 1907—and the ten-year-old was unimpressed by what she saw as a rusty, uninteresting contraption. That changed in 1920, when the college student attended an 'air rodeo' in Long Beach, California, with her father. Such events were common amusements in the early 1920s, and usually featured daredevil former flying aces showing off the skills they had honed in combat. The day after the event, Amelia was a passenger on a 10-minute flight with barnstormer Frank Hawks. The plane only rose 2,000 feet, but it swept Amelia off hers. 'As soon as we left the ground, I knew I myself had to fly,' she later recalled. She begged her parents to allow her to take flight lessons, and arranged for one of the few women in the field, test pilot Neta Snook, to instruct her. In 1923, she was licensed by the governing body of sports aviation, the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale—the 16th woman to gain the coveted license. Earhart's rising fame and record-breaking flights Plagued with both financial and health issues during her early 20s, Earhart took odd jobs to finance her flight education and buy her first plane. She also became involved in her local chapter of the National Aeronautical Association. 'None of this was what you could call important—except to me,' she later wrote in her 1932 autobiography. 'It was sheer fun.' Then, in 1928, Earhart was asked if she wanted to become the first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean by plane. The dangerous crossing was undertaken by pilot Wilmer Stultz and a copilot Louis Gordon, both of whom were compensated for the flight. By contrast, Earhart would be an unpaid passenger. 'She was invited on board to represent the liberated, yet still feminine, all-American girl—an educated, socially-gracious woman comfortable with modern technology,' writes historian Amy Sue Bix. Earhart wanted to fly the plane during the crossing, but poor visibility and pilot decisions meant that she did not spend time behind the rudder. But the stunt was historic nonetheless. Suddenly, Amelia Earhart was a household name. How 'Lady Lindy' took the world by storm Earhart used her sudden celebrity to aviation's advantage. Meeting with celebrities, she used their endorsements and connections to finance future flights. She helped popularize the idea of women in aviation through writing about her experiences for national publications. She even set fashions, including a velvet, turban-style hat inspired by her leather flying helmet that was advertised as, 'smart for traveling by train or motor, as well as for flying.' Earhart continued to fly, earning records for altitude and becoming the first woman to fly solo across the United States. Amelia Earhart arrives in Derry after her solo transatlantic flight on May 20, 1932, in Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. Earhart was one of the first women to break barriers in the aviation industry. Photograph by API, Gamma-Rapho, Getty Images 'Lady Lindy'—so known for her resemblance to Charles Lindbergh, the biggest aviation celebrity of the age—was just getting started. After marrying publicist George Palmer Putnam, Earhart began emulating Lindbergh's signature achievements, starting with being the first woman pilot to complete a nonstop flight solo across the Atlantic Ocean in 1932. In the decade that followed, she added more firsts to the list, becoming the first person to solo flight across the Pacific Ocean. Buoyed by her successes, she began planning the most ambitious flight ever undertaken by a woman to date—a solo flight around the world. The mystery of Amelia Earhart's disappearance Earhart's trusty Lockheed Electra took off from Oakland, California on June 1, 1937, to international fanfare. Fans tracked Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan as they touched down to refuel at locations around the world. But after departing Lae, New Guinea, for one of the final stretches of the journey on June 29, they disappeared. Earhart, Noonan, and the plane were never seen again. Amelia Earhart's disappearance marks the front page of the Daily News on July 3, 1937. After months of searching, Earhart was pronounced dead on Jan. 5, 1939. Photograph by New York Daily News Archive, Contributor, Getty Images An unsuccessful manhunt turned up no plane and no remains. But though Earhart was pronounced dead a few weeks after her disappearance, searches for her final resting place—and more information about the doomed flight—have continued ever since. Theories abound on what happened to Amelia Earhart and her navigator. Were they captured by the Japanese and executed as suspected spies? Did they run out of fuel and crash into the Pacific, leaving the wreckage of their plane at the ocean floor? Or did they spend their last days as castaways on a remote Pacific island? The answer is still unclear. Generations of explorers have searched and recently used modern technology like sonar and autonomous underwater vehicles to find her plane. (Has Amelia Earhart's plane really been found?) Earhart's fate will likely never be known. But her significance as a female aviation pioneer live on. Earhart not only used her celebrity to lobby for aviation legislation, but she paved the way for public acceptance of independent, adventurous women. She was far from the first accomplished female pilot. But her worldwide fame helped other women get their start in aeronautics and technology, blazing a trail for women in aviation and elsewhere. Women are still underrepresented in aviation. According to the International Civil Aviation Organization, just 4.9 percent of pilots, air traffic controllers, and airplane maintenance technicians were women in 2023. But that number grows every year—thanks in part to the trailblazing woman who helped the world take flight. (Meet the women who risked everything to be the first to fly.) 'All kinds of minds…are trying to work out theoretical details of efficient flight,' Earhart wrote in 1932. 'That women will share in these endeavors, even more than they have in the past, is my wish—and prophecy.'
