A search party set sail for a remote Pacific island this weekend to look for clues about the fate of Amelia Earhart.
The American aviation pioneer disappeared 80 years ago during an attempt to fly around the world. In the latest National Geographic-sponsored expedition seeking Earhart’s remains, a group of forensic dogs will be brought to the island of Nikumaroro to sniff for human bones.
Earhart was already a famous aviator by the time she set off for her round-the-world flight in June 1937. Among her many other records, she was the first woman, and second person after Charles Lindbergh, to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean in 1932. Her flight around the world wouldn’t have been the first, but it would have been the longest, following a 29,000-mile (47,000 kilometers) route close to the equator. [In Photos: Searching for Aviator Amelia Earhart]
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They were last seen on July 2, 1937, in Lae, New Guinea, as they ventured toward Howland Island in one of the last legs of thejourney.
The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Itasca had been waiting at Howland Island to offer radio assistance and a smoke signal so that the flyers could better locate the mile-wide strip of land in the Pacific. But communication was spotty, and Earhart’s last transmissionsindicate she thought she was near her destination but couldn't find it and was running out of fuel.
Theories abound about what happened next, ranging from the more credible (they crashed in the ocean) to the more imaginative (Earhart was really a spy and was captured by the Japanese, or she ran off to New Jersey to live under a secret
One day she was flying over the ocean, the next day she was gone, never to be seen again. Amelia Earhart was a pilot and the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean. In 1937 Amelia was flying over the Pacific Ocean when she and her plane disappeared. Because Amelia Earhart was such an important person in American History, we need to find out what happened to her. There are quite a few theories about what happened to Earhart. Some of these are she was a spy, gathering information about the Japanese, or she crashed into the Pacific Ocean. One of the most widely believed theories is Amelia Earhart’s disappearance was caused by her plane crashing onto Gardner Island. There is plenty of physical evidence proving she crashed onto the island. Also, there are experts that believe this is what happened to her and there are radio calls from Earhart after her disappearance.
Amelia Earhart wanted a challenge so she decided to fly the circumference of the world, the plane failed to establish a two way radio connection and they don’t exactly know what happened with the failure (wikipedia.org).
After searching around the island, the body of a pilot was discovered. We have no further details at this
Fred Noonan was suspected for his drinking problems, and many have speculated that this may have affected his navigating skills, although other reports say that Noonan did not drink during the last part of the trip. However, Earhart's comments to her husband about personnel fitness can indeed lead one to wonder whether he was in optimal condition to navigate them to Howland. ( Butler 404) Whether he drank or not, his skills with Morse code were severely lacking, as were Earhart's. This would prove to be a fatal error as they tried to land on Howland Island. Because of Earhart's poor radio system, they would have had to rely on Morse code to communicate with nearby ships to locate the miniscule island. (405) By themselves, there was no way they could even tell where Howland Island was without information from people closer to the ground. In fact, according to Susan Butler, a journalist turned historian, "Compared with Howland, Hawaii was a continent." (405) To make matters even more complicated, Noonan had devised their route based solely on the position of the sun and stars, but the weather was too overcast and cloudy to see anything. Because Howland was a small island surrounded by ocean, Earhart could not simply land somewhere else close. Donald Goldstein, a retired air force officer and author, observes:
Amelia Earhart or “The Babe of The Sky” most popular for being the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, Setting a record for longest distance without refueling, First women to a fly nonstop transcontinental flight, also achieving many more honors all while also writing two books.While achieving another record; to be the first woman to fly around the world she suddenly disappeared on her voyage so close to the finish line.But what exactly happened to Amelia Earhart? Did she truly meet her doom in the ocean or could other theories surrounding her disappearance possibly be true? Let's look at Amelia Earhart before her disappearance. Born in Atchison, Kansas on July 24, 1897. A spirit of adventure seemed to consume the Earhart children. As a child, Earhart spent most of her time playing with her sister Pidge, climbing trees, sledding, and other outdoor play. Earhart soon Taking a course in Red Cross First Aid, Earhart enlisted as a nurse's aide at Spadina Military Hospital in Toronto, Canada, tending to wounded soldiers during World War I and when the Spanish flu pandemic was spreading. The following year, Amelia enrolled as a premedical student at Columbia University in New York. Shortly thereafter, Earhart soon changed her mind and changed schools, attending Columbia University. Learning to fly in California, she took up aviation as a hobby, taking odd jobs to pay for her flying lessons. In 1922, with the financial
In 1937, on Amelia Earhart's 40th birthday, she decided she wanted to do something extravagant. She decided she would fly around the entire world. Her first attempt was in March but damaged her plane and could not try again until she got it fixed. On June 1st she started her second attempt. Amelia and her navigator departed from Miami Florida and began their
dead on a flight that is still missing to this day. So the question is what really happened to these
This world is full of mystery, today there are over thousands of unanswered questions over the span of centuries. Several of these mysteries were people and there’s one that happened very recently but still has go undiscovered, her name was Amelia Earhart. In her time the great depression was in full effect and people's lives were at their worst. When Amelia came along people were able to find a sense of entertainment and enjoyment because of her; men and women alike both looked up to her for what she did for aviation. It wasn’t until her untimely death that people began to lose hope again. So what really did happen to Amelia Earhart in the end.
“The most effective way to do it, is to do it.¨ said by Amelia Earhart, the first female pilot to fly across the Atlantic ocean. Her goal was to be the first female pilot to fly around the world solo. That goal ended when Amelia disappeared during her last flight from Lae New Guinea to Howland island. Amelia´s aviation journey has left many unanswered questions. The main question is, what happened to her on her last flight over the Pacific ocean. Amelia came a from a middle class family during a time when women were expected at an early age to get married and have children, not pursue male activities such as exploring. Amelia´s disappearance left the public in shock and would generate many theories on what happened to her.
Amelia Earhart had the courage to fly around the world. In June 1939, Amelia, along with her navigator Frederick Noonan, embarked upon the first around-the-world flight at the equator. But after completing 22,000 miles, she and her navigator disappeared and were never seen since even though her husband, George Putnam, had spent $4 million scouring 250,000 square miles of ocean. Some theorized that the both of them ran out of fuel trying to look for Howland Island, but others say that they might have crash-landed on another island. Surprisingly, Amelia Earhart grew even more famous after she disappeared.
The plane she was flying in had some problems and needed repaired before she could go on, so she had to cancel her trip for the time being. A couple months later Amelia decided to try again. This time she started in Miami, Florida with Fred Noonan, the only person she had on the plane. During their trip the radio started to cut out and soon it lost connection somewhere near Howland Island over the Pacific Ocean. The last message that came over the radio from Amelia trembled, “We must be on you, but cannot see you, but gas is running low. Have been unable to reach you by radio. We are flying at 1,000 feet”(Alchin). Amelia knew something was wrong and tried to reach out for help but the radio connection kept giving out. Nobody heard anything else from Amelia after that, she disappeared. TIGHAR known as The Investigative Group For Historic Aircraft Recovery, and many others searched for Amelia and Noonan for a very long time. They have some theories about what could have happened but they do not have any facts to prove it. July 2, 1937 the official searches ended and after two years of searching Amelia was declared dead. The case of Amelia Earhart was closed when Ric Gillespie found a piece of Amelia’s plane. Adler announces “In late October, after seizing a chance to compare his aluminum sheet against an Electra under restoration in Kansas, he announced that the rivet holes and other features were the equivalent of "a fingerprint" establishing that it had come from Earhart's plane, leading some news organizations to declare the case
At one point in her last flight, Amelia had entered the longest and most difficult passage and the following results have been a mystery. The second to last checkpoint of this flight was from New Guinea to Howland Island. The 2,500 miles were never completed. The “Electra” was supposed to endure twenty hours. After the fifteenth hour or so, things started to go wrong. On July 2, radio workers on Howland Island started to hear some signals. They weren’t completely clear, but the workers knew the signals were coming in from Amelia’s plane. This showed that she was in some kind of trouble and really needed to talk to somebody. Very soon it became clear that she couldn’t hear their frantic radio signals back to her. Her last try of sending a radio signal was recorded 8:43 local time on July 2, 1937 (“Earhart Overview”). The immediate search for her and Noonan was headed by the Navy. The Navy started searching near and around Howland Island. Many people, even soldiers from the Civil War, came to help search for her and her navigator. They searched everywhere they could think of but had no success. On July 18, they called off the search. The Navy had their own opinion on what had happened. “The general opinion was that the plane had probably run out of gas, gone down at sea, and sunk without a trace.” (Beheim). She never finished the last leg of her flight, much to the people’s
Making its way from Puerto Rico to Miami, the Airborne Transport DC-3 disappearance occurred on December 28, 1948. At 4:30 AM, a radio transmission was sent reporting
The ship took off from Frankfurt Germany on May 3rd 1937. They flew over the Atlantic ocean. When they reached America people were hoping to see the ship land peacefully. When they reached new jersey the ship was letting off some water to level
Amelia Earhart left quite an impression on the world. From being the first woman to fly across the Atlantic to even setting a speed record of 181 miles per hour, Earhart was a figure to look up to. When she disappeared, she was attempting to become the first person to fly around the world. Her disappearance has always been a mystery and it will continue to be one for as long as we live. However, new evidence has brought up the suggestion that maybe she crashed on a deserted island and was stranded before she later on died. Some people don’t believe this and they think that she was secretly a spy for the U.S. and was captured and held hostage by Japanese soldiers. Some people even think that she was on a suicide mission. Until researchers find evidence that proves what really happened, her disappearance will always be a mystery.