After nearly 90 years of speculation, new insight into Amelia Earhart’s sudden disappearance has emerged. Earhart vanished without a trace while attempting to fly around the world with just her navigator Fred Noonan in a Lockheed Model 10-E Electra. New sonar images might bring an end to the mystery.
Amelia Earhart was a record breaking American aviator who vanished without a trace in 1937. Born in 1897, Earhart knew she wanted to be a pilot after her first flight in 1920 where she declared, “As soon as we left the ground, I knew I myself had to fly.” Just a year later, Earhart purchased her first plane and began chasing records.
Throughout her career as a pilot, Earhart achieved a plethora of records, some of which include flying higher than any other woman (14,000 feet), flying faster than any other woman, and being the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. In addition to these accomplishments, Earhart also dedicated her time to organizing and participating in various aviation groups such as the Ninety Nines club.
Earhart’s attempt to circumnavigate the globe began in Oakland, California on May 20, 1937. The last time Earhart and Noonan were seen was in Lae, Papua New Guinea on July 2. The plane was supposed to land on Howland Island to refuel but after a radio transmission from Earhart to the U.S. Coast Guard saying they were near the island and low on fuel, the pair was never seen or heard from again.
The U.S. Navy and Coast Guard searched for the plane for a little over two weeks without success. Earhart and Noonan were declared dead on January 5, 1939.
Several additional searches were conducted, but none yielded any results until recently. Pilot and former U.S. intelligence officer, Tony Romeo, set out on a 100 day expedition in search for the famous plane. During the mission, Romeo photographed a plane shaped object lying on the ocean’s floor through the use of sonar. The object is about 100 miles away from Earhart’s intended destination at Howland Island and rests 16,400 feet below the ocean’s surface.
Despite the promising photographs, there is no guarantee this is Earhart’s plane, or even that it is a plane at all. Sonar images are captured through sound waves, which are very large and lack the ability to capture details. Alternatively, if the images do in fact depict a plane, it is possible that the plane is from World War II where 43,000 planes were lost overseas.
Romeo plans to return to the site where the images were collected from to verify his discovery with better imaging equipment in 2024. In the meantime, he refuses to disclose the exact location of the find in order to prevent others from beating him to it.
If the plane is discovered, several conspiracies surrounding the mystery will be debunked. Some of these conspiracies believe that Earhart and Noonan survived the flight and landed on Nikumaroro Island where they subsequently starved to death. Other conspiracists think that the pair was captured and killed by the Japanese because of a photograph which appeared to depict Earhart and Noonan on a dock with her plane in the background.
The answer to the mystery surrounding Amelia Earhart remains unsolved for the moment, but an answer could be just around the corner. Despite her unfinished flight, Amelia paved the way for future aviators to spread their wings and pursue their dreams just as she did.
