The Lost Aviator: Conspiracies around the Disappearance of Amelia Earhart by Kyle Benacquisto

How does one of the most celebrated women in United States history fly so high one day and simply vanish the next? That is the question regarding the mysterious disappearance of American aviator Amelia Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan (“Amelia Earhart”). The two embarked on a daring flight around the world on May 21, 1973, from Oakland, California (Sherman). The trip was troubled from the start, causing many to wonder if the duo would call off the voyage. The pair was two-thirds of the way done with their voyage when they simply vanished in thin air. Neither the plane nor the bodies of the pilots were ever found (1) There are any questions and conspiracies surrounding the disappearance: Were Earhart and Noonan spies for President Roosevelt to spy on the Japanese? Were the two captured by the Japanese? Did the two crash land on a deserted island or into the ocean? If they did crash land, did they survive it? Let’s examine the disappearance of Amelia Earhart and the conspiracies surrounding it, with the most likely answer being that she died in a plane crash in the ocean.

Amelia Earhart was as high flying of a celebrity as the United States has ever known. Her dreams and ambitions stood taller than her 5’8”, 118 lb. frame. With her short blond and aviators jacket, Earhart stole the heart of people worldwide and inspired women of all ages. That is why the world held their breath as the news broke that Amelia Earhart had gone missing on her final flight, turning the biggest pilot into the biggest mystery.

Amelia Earhart was ambitious beyond measure. Her father’s job as a railroad worker instilled in Amelia a certain love for traveling and new discovery (More Amelia Earhart Stories). She carried this with her as she grew up. In 1920, Earhart, against her family’s wishes, had begun her career in aviation, a male dominated frontier until the time of Earhart (Amelia Earhart). She was not afraid to push the norms of society. She entered the aviation record books countless times in her tenured career as a pilot. When asked in an interview about whether or not Miss Earhart would pursue more records, she responded with "Well, you might hint, darkly, that possibly I have." (Webb). Maybe it was her pursuit of legacy that resulted in her disappearance.

            Earhart was not a typical woman of her time. Growing up, Earhart openly questioned the gender roles forced upon her. Not one to play with dolls and swoon over dresses, Earhart preferred mechanical wonders, wire chicken traps, and tales of adventure over the more prim-and-proper approach to a life of a young woman (More Amelia Earhart Stories). Earhart carried this urge to push the social norms well into her adulthood, evident by her career path into something so male dominated. But Earhart also did something else in her marriage that would raise some eyebrows. She refused to take her husband’s last name, insisting to keep the maiden name she made famous with her adventures (Amelia Earhart).

            Whether for good or bad, Amelia Earhart had relentless determination. Once she set her mind on something, she stuck to her gut. Once, when Earhart was young, she set off on a mission to exterminate all the rats in her grandfather’s barn in hopes to contain the plague she feared they would spread (More Amelia Earhart Stories). She cornered one in a hole and laid there while she missed dinner, waiting to shoot it with her rifle (1). Whenever Earhart first attempted to fly across the world, she failed miserably as her plane crashed while taking off in Honolulu (Greshko). She would not let that stop her though, as she was dead-set on becoming the first pilot, regardless of gender, to fly across the equator (1). She continued the flight with a steely determination, despite the fact that she had fallen in during the second half of the journey, as well as the fact that she had been experiencing personnel problems with her equipment and crew (1). Perhaps her drive to finish was her fatal flaw.

            Earhart’s attention to detail and organization defined her. She was extremely diligent in all affairs. Upon attending an editorial convention at Kansas State, Earhart arrived a day early to make sure she was well prepared, showing that she prepared in advance for unforeseen mistakes (Webb). One interviewer mentioned that Amelia Earhart would commit and commend reporters for good notetaking (1). This attention to detail shows that Amelia Earhart pays attention to the little things. That is what makes her final flight so strange. Earhart purposely leaves communication equipment behind, “thinking” she would not need it (Kettler). However, her plane loses communication shortly before it goes missing, causing many to wonder, like reporter Michael Greshko, “Why would someone as experienced and prepared short-hand such important equipment?” (Greshko). What makes this trip so different for Earhart?

            The disappearance of Amelia Earhart is one of the most debated mysteries in recent history. There are several theories regarding her disappearance: Amelia crash landed onto a deserted island, Amelia was a spy for the US government and was captured by the Japanese, Amelia survived her crash and returned to the US under the new identity of Irene Bolam, and Amelia’s plane crashed into the ocean. Due to the fact no body was ever found, nor the plane, all ideas could be plausible. Yet, only one holds up in cross examination.

            The first conspiracy states that Amelia Earhart, blown off her course by Pacific winds and running low on fuel, crash landed on to an island, injured but alive (Wootson). Many people, including the TIGHAR, or The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, have a firm belief that their beloved aviator braved the rough landing and lived out the rest of her days stranded (1).  The TIGHAR believed they had found the island where Amelia Earhart would have landed, claiming that the island named Nikumaroro, four hundred miles off from her original landing plan, was Earhart’s final resting place (1). A skeleton had been found on the island during 1940, yet physician D.W. Hoodless determined they couldn’t possibly be Earhart’s, saying the bones belong to those of a smaller, stocky man of European descent (1). One TIGHAR represntative, Ric Gillespie, wouldn’t be swayed, insisting on using specially trained collies to search for chemical residues left behind by decaying bodies (1).  Through the use of the four dogs, the TIGHAR research group was able to locate a spot where there was believed to be remains (1). Despite constant searching no human remains were found, and although Gillespie sent soil samples to labs to be tested for human DNA, even he admits that at this point it is wishful thinking (1).

            The second conspiracy theory about Erhart comes with a fair dose of espionage. Some believe that Amelia Earhart was merely using her cross-the-world journey as a way to spy on the Japanese military camps for the United States government. The way the story goes is that President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the mission, hoping to gain vital information with Earhart’s aid. Some say that Earhart’s plane, the Lockheed Electra 10E, was prepared for gathering inteligence, equipped with cameras. W.C. Jameson, author of  “Amelia Earhart: Beyond the Grave”, argues that ,”Earhart and Noonan were shot down or landed in Japanese territory and taken captive, Roosevelt made no attempt to free them because he didn’t want to admit he had enlisted the famous aviator as a spy.”(Pruitt) Some specualate that Earhart then either crash landed or was shot down over the Marshall Islands, islands that were under Japanese control at the time. A photo recently surfaced on the History Channel, showing what many people assumed is Earhart sitting on a dock in the Marshall Islands, along with her navigator Fred Noonan (Wescott). The picture was quickly disproved, as it was taken well before Earhart’s disappearance. One of the bloggers who discovered the photograph knew it could not possibly be from after the disappearance claiming ,"The entire life of the Marshallese was changing. Then in 1937 (came) the war on China and military activities in the Marshall Islands (by the Japanese). There is not a Japanese person on that dock. If it was 1937, there would be Japanese soldiers there." (1)

Ultimately, there simply is not enough evidence to claim that Earhart was taken prisoner in Japan, yet plenty disproving it.

            Though she may not have died in prison Japan, some believe that she was freed and returned to the United States under the identity of Irene Bolam.  Those who believe this theory state that Earhart, after being captured by the Japanese, Earhart was brought back to the United States under the new identity of Irene Bolam. In 1970, Joe Klass published the book Amelia Earhart Lives!, putting this theory out into the world (Reineck). Bolam quickly set out to extinguish the claim that she was Amelia Earhart, suing Klass. But that did not put an end to the debate. Colonel Rollin Reineck firmly believes that Bolam and Earhart ar the same person. Reineck states “[T]he case of the missing person Amelia Earhart, surely has been solved by virtue of forensic science.”, using photo aging technology on Earhart, resulting in a near perfect comparison to that of an older Bolam (1).  While the aged photographs may have been convincing, in their younger years, Earhart and Bolam looked just as similar to each other as any other two women of European descent (1).  Though very similar, it is very unlikely that Irene Bolam and Amelia Earhart were in fact the same people.

            The final and most likely conspiracy theory regarding Earhart’s disappearance was that she simply crashed into to the ocean and was never seen again. Many believe that after her last communications went out, Earhart ran out off fuel and crashed, sinking to the bottom of the sea just off of Howland Island (Adler). A Coast Guard ship named the Itasca claims to have heard faint and breif transmissions believed to be from Earhart, and rushed to the location (1). The Itasca and many other ships stayed in the area for several days, and saw no sign of the plane, leading many to believe that the aircraft simply crashed and sank to the bottom of the depths. Another theory is that the plane crash landed on a barrier reef (1). The belief is that the plane was washed off the reef after a storm following the crash, leaving the two passengers stranded and at the will of the weather (1). Recently a piece of an aircraft was found on a nearby reef, and experts believe that it may have belonged to Earhart’s, meaning that the rest of the crafy may be near by (1). Given the vastness of the ocean, the wreckage of the plane could be anywhere and very hard to locate, making this the easiest theory for many to accept. In a recently conducted survey, out of the four theories presented in this essay, 61.9% of people believe that Amelia Earhart simply crashed in the water. If that is the case, the world may never learn the exact wherabouts of the body of its greatest aviator.

Amelia Earhart was one of most famous women of all-time and a world renown aviator who was gone from this world too early. Her records and feats of wonder will last forever in our hearts and memories. Her disappearance became a mystery hoping for an answer, whether it be that she crash landed on a deserted island, was captured by the Japanese, continued life as Irene Bolam, or crashed and sank into the ocean. Over eighty years later, Amelia Earhart is still missing, most likely laying on the ocean floor somewhere.

Works Cited

Adler, Jerry. “Will the Search for Amelia Earhart Ever End?” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 1 Jan. 2015, www.smithsonianmag.com/history/will-search-for-amelia-earhart-ever-end-180953646/.

Encyclopædia Britannica. "Amelia Earhart.". Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 05 June 2017. Web.

Gillespie, Richard E. “Earhart Biography.” TIGHAR, Tighar, tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Research/ResearchPapers/Earhart.html#1.

Greshko, Michael. "Top 3 Theories for Amelia Earhart's Disappearance." National Geographic. National Geographic Society, 11 July 2017. Web.

Kettler, Sara. "The Mysterious Final Flight of Amelia Earhart." Biography.com. A&E Networks Television, 07 July 2017. Web.

"More Amelia Earhart Stories." Amelia Earhart Museum. N.p., n.d. Web.

Pruitt, Sarah. “WAS AMELIA EARHART CAPTURED WHILE SPYING ON JAPAN?” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 2016, www.history.com/news/new-book-claims-amelia-earhart-was-a-spy-captured-by-japan/print.

Reineck, Rollin. “Is This Amelia Earhart?” Amelia Earhart Survived, The Paragon Agency Publishers, 2003, tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Books/BookReviews/earhartsurvive.html.

Sherman, Stephen. "Amelia Earhart." Her Last Flight and Disappearance. Acepilots.com, 17 Jan. 2001. Web.

Webb, Nellie. "AMELIA MORE THAN ON TIME." Atchison Daily Globe [Atchison] 7 June 1935: n. pag. Amelia Earhart Museum. Amelia Earhart Museum. Web.

Westcott, Ben. “Amelia Earhart Mystery: Photo Appears Taken 2 Years before Pilot Vanished.” CNN, Cable News Network, 13 July 2017, www.cnn.com/2017/07/12/asia/amelia-earhart-photo-japan/index.html.

Wootson Jr, Cleve R.. “Missing Pilot Amelia Earhart 'Died as Pacific Castaway' after 1937 Crash, Researchers Claim.” The Independent, Independent Digital News and Media, 10 July 2017, www.independent.co.uk/news/world-0/amelia-earhart-mystery-disappearance-death-pacific-ocean-pilot-1937-a7832646.html.