Mystery 11 of 15
11. Where Is Amelia Earhart’s Airplane?
On July 2, 1937, Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan took off from Lae, New Guinea, during Earhart’s attempt to fly around the world.
Their destination was tiny Howland Island in the central Pacific.
They never arrived.
Radio messages showed that Earhart was having difficulty locating the island. In one of her most famous transmissions, she reported that fuel was running low. Communication then stopped.
The United States launched an enormous search, but neither Earhart, Noonan, nor their Lockheed Electra was found.
The simplest and most widely accepted explanation is that the aircraft ran out of fuel near Howland Island, crashed into the Pacific, and sank.
Another theory proposes that Earhart and Noonan landed near Nikumaroro, then known as Gardner Island, and survived temporarily as castaways. Expeditions have searched the island and surrounding waters without producing evidence accepted as definitive.
Why It Is Still a Mystery
No confirmed wreckage of Earhart’s Electra has been recovered.
That missing physical evidence leaves room for competing theories, although many sensational claims about capture by Japan or secret identities have little credible support. Until the airplane is located, the final location of one of aviation history’s most famous pilots remains uncertain.
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