amelia earhart

amelia earhart

• 1897 - ~1937

• Aviation Pioneer and author

  • Wrote best selling books about her flying experiences

earhart’s accomplishments

• Broke woman’s altitude record (1922)

• 2nd person to fly solo, nonstop across the Atlantic Ocean (1928)

• First person to fly solo, nonstop across the US (1932)

earhart’s final voyage

• In 1936 she began planning a flight around the globe

  • Others had already flown around the world, but her flight would have been the longest, roughly following the equator

• Original plan was to have two navigators and to fly from East to West

  • Mechanical problems resulted in damage to the aircraft on takeoff

• 2nd attempt forced Amelia to fly from West to
  East (due to timing and weather issues) with
  only one navigator, Fred Noonan

• Left Oakland, CA flying east on 20 May 1937

• Landed in Australia on 29 June 1937

• Left Lea (Papua New Guinea) on 2 July 1937 planning to refuel on Howland Island

  • Approximately 2,550 miles from Lae

• ~5pm they radioed their position as near Howland Island and low on fuel

• Radioed again ~8pm

• Never seen or heard from again

earhart lost

• US Navy & Coast Guard searched for 16 days without success

where is amelia?

• Final words: “We are on you but cannot see you”

  • Suggests that they may not actually have been where they thought they were

    • Navigation error?

• Obviously, no one knows but there have been MANY searches over the years

  • And MANY guesses as to what happened

    • To include alien abduction

• In the 1950s people started to believe Amelia and Noonan were shot down by the Japanese over the Marshall Islands and that they were captured, imprisoned, and eventually died

  • No evidence to support this

• Most likely is that Amelia and Noonan ran out of fuel and either landed or crashed and were ever found

nikumaroro remains

• In 1940 human skeletal remains were found on Nikumaroro Island

• Additional searches at the time found:

• A woman’s shoe

• A sextant box

• A Benedictine bottle

  • All things are consistent with items that Earhart and Noonan could have had with them

• Remains were examined in 1941 by DW Hoodless who taught at a medical school in Fiji, who concluded that the bones

  • Were likely those of a middle aged, stocky male who was ~5’5”

    • This is inconsistent with Earhart and Noonan

• the remains have been lost

  • totally unclear what happened to them

• Measurements taken by Hoodless were re-examined by forensic anthropologist Kar Burns in 1998 who concluded that the bones

  • Were likely those of a female of European ancestry who was between 5’6” and 5’8”

    • All of which is consistent with Earhart

• Measurements re-examined by Richard Jantz in 2018

  • Jantz also examined images of Earhart to compare estimates to actual measurements

  • Found that the Nikumaroro remains are 99.28% more likely to be from Earhart than another individual

recent find

• Deep Sea Vision

  • Marine robotics company

• Sonar image that MIGHT be Earhart’s Lockheed 10-E Electra plane

• ~100 miles from Howland Island

  • Location that Earhart and Noonan were heading when they disappeared in 1937