In the face of mystery and lack of facts, imagination sometimes fills in the blanks on its own. A person has an innate desire for certainty, completeness and clarity of the picture. The same is the case with the mysterious disappearance of the female pilot Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan.
Different versions
70 years have passed since the disappearance of Amelia, and doubts still torment people, forcing them to make the strangest assumptions, for example, that she was an American spy, for which she was caught and executed by the Japanese (which is unlikely, given that the Japanese themselves helped look for her after disappearing). Others believe that she survived the last mission and became one of the infamous World War II radio broadcasters Tokyo roses.
The strangest theory is that she secretly returned to the United States and took over the identity of the banker and housewife Irene Bolam. This is not to mention the version that she was abducted by aliens.
An unsolved mystery
Those trying to find a more scientific explanation devote themselves to studying the circumstances of her last days. Various private expeditions have been undertaken over several decades. Despite using the most sophisticated ocean floor research equipment and archaeological techniques to explore the tiny islands, the fate of Earhart and Noonan remains unknown. This is not to say that researchers have no data at all, or that they are ready to stop looking for a solution to this mystery forever.
Promotional video:
Last flight
Earhart has set many aviation records. Her dream was to become the first woman to fly around the globe along the longest route - along the equator.
On July 2, 1937, Earhart and Noonan took off from Papua New Guinea. Their direction lay in the direction of Howland Island, a tiny atoll in the South Pacific. They managed to cover a distance of 4,000 kilometers, there were still 11,000 left. At a certain point they had enough fuel left to get to Howland. To rule out the possibility of error, the Itasca Coast Guard maintained radio contact with them all the time. Two more ships constantly kept lights to serve as signposts during the voyage.
Noonan tried to resort to astronomical navigation to pave the way, but the sky was constantly dragging. In addition, radio communications with the Coast Guard were regularly interrupted. After dawn, Itasca established contact with Earhart. She said that according to Noonan's calculations, they should be just somewhere above the Itasca, and that they were running out of fuel. Her last radiogram, an hour later, said: "We are moving along the line." No further messages have been received from Earhart and Noonan.
The beginning of large-scale searches
President Roosevelt organized a large-scale search operation Earhart with the help of the US Navy in an area of 647,497 square kilometers. Four million dollars were spent on the search - and this is at the height of the Great Depression. Other searches have involved Howland Island and surrounding waters. No aircraft wreckage was found. It seemed as if Earhart and Noonan had simply disappeared into thin air.
When in subsequent years the search was curtailed, new facts began to flow about the fate of the pilots.
Finds on Gardner Island
Towards the end of the search operation in 1937, the US Navy dispatched a destroyer to the uninhabited Gardner Atoll, today known as Nikumaroro. It is located 643 kilometers southeast of Howland. Radio transmissions on the frequency that Earhart used were widely used in the field. The search was terminated when no sign of living people was seen.
Perhaps this would be the last time Earhart's flight was linked to the island. However, it was colonized by Britain a year after its disappearance. In 1940, Gerald Gallagher, the main government official on the island, found evidence that the coast was inhabited even before colonization. Among the finds were the soles of women's and men's boots, a bottle of liquor, a container with a sextant navigational device, a human skull and bones.
New investigations
These findings led to the fact that the island of Nikumaroro became in the eyes of many the key to unraveling the mystery of Amelia Earhart. In particular, the research group International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery conducted a number of investigations on the island. She also made other interesting discoveries. In one part of the island, something like an abandoned camp was discovered. A large clam shell was cracked, apparently by someone deliberately. Charred bones of turtles, fish and birds were found, as well as a jar of cream to lighten freckles. Finally, the researchers found aluminum debris that may have belonged to the crashed plane.
The assumption that Earhart's plane crashed and fell into the ocean, and its wreckage was used by the inhabitants of the island as tools, did not discourage researchers from searching for the aircraft at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. Sonar searches were conducted around Howland Island. But despite all efforts, neither the plane, nor its wreckage were ever found. Why then? And why, with so much evidence, including human bones, does the mystery of Amelia Earhart remain unsolved?
Difficulties for experts
Perhaps the biggest obstacle for researchers is the vastness of the territory in which the missing plane could be found. No one can know for sure exactly where the aircraft crashed, since radio communications were interrupted during the flight. Do not forget about the regularly overcast sky, which could have a significant impact on astronomical navigation. A quarter of a million square kilometers of ocean is too large a search field for the fleet. Although the most careful searches have focused on small areas, the area where the crash could occur is too large.
Marine topography makes this quest for a needle in a haystack even more difficult: the atolls of the Pacific Ocean suddenly rise from the depths and are surrounded by steep cliffs that reach the ocean floor. Human factors can also affect the search for reliable evidence. Human remains on Gardner Island disappeared after being examined by doctors in the early 1940s. If they survived, then DNA analysis of the remains could establish whether they belonged to Amelia Earhart. At least the records of doctors who studied the bones indicate that they belonged to a woman of European descent.
Hope for a clue
But all these obstacles do not prevent fans of Amelia Earhart, as well as people obsessed with aviation, from continuing to search for answers to their questions. The aforementioned International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery launched a 30-day expedition in September 2014 exploring the ocean waters surrounding Nikumaroro Island on an expedition vessel. During the same period, another group of researchers combed the island's beach line in search of the remains of Earhart and Noonan.
Earlier, in 2013, the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery announced that sonar had discovered a massive object about seven meters in length, which is believed to be the wreck of an Earhart plane. It rests at a depth of 183 meters in ocean waters.
There is reason to believe that the plane survived the crash. If so, then his remains may be in perfect condition on the oxygen-deprived bottom of the Pacific Ocean. Perhaps sooner or later we will nevertheless get to the solution to the mystery of the disappearance of the famous pilot.
Maxim Ewald
