Could the bones found on a small island eighty years ago be Amelia
Earhart? The once renowned aviator tried to change history but unfortunately
vanished into thin air. Even decades later, people still wonder where she could
have disappeared too. Researchers had try hard to chart graphs, datas, and
explored unknown islands in hopes of finding the remains of her body, which
leave us the big question; Just what happened to Amelia Hart? There are three
realistic theories on the whereabout of Amelia Earhart; The Japanese captured
and killed her, she simply crashed in the ocean and her plane sank, and she got
stuck on an island and died a castaway.
Amelia
can be labeled as daring. Even when she was a kid, she said she should “be
allowed to do anything a boy would be allowed to do”. It was extraordinary to
make such a statement especially since she was at a very young age to
understand the social complex expectation in society. It shows that her bold nature
continues to grow as she matures and have a full understanding of her
environment. She does not care whether it’s her husband or anyone else, she
will seek on what she believes in. Before taking a dangerous trip around the
world, Earhart wrote to her husband “Please know I am quite aware of the
hazards. I want to do it because I want to do it. Women must try to do things
as men have tried”(Edwins). This shows that no reasoning will persuade her to
change her mind even though this is the most menacing trip she has ever been
on. Her daring soul must see the results before her mind is at peace and that
is part of her nature. She loves experiencing exhilarating things which defined
who she is.
Another
character trait that strongly describes Amelia Earhart is that she is
determined. In 1920, Amelia attended her first airshow and also had her first
ride on an airplane. She said “As soon as we left the ground, I knew I had to
fly” which was a bizarre thing to say because men dominated the early airplane
era. However, that fact did not faze Earhart at all and her fiery willpower
propelled her to break countless records no one had seen before. Even after
becoming the first woman to crossed the Atlantic ocean in 1928, Earhart was not
satisfied as she did not pilot the plane and described herself as a “sack of
potatoes”(Amelia Earhart Biography). After that flight, she was focused on
proving herself that she can break records just like men do. In 1932, Earhart
fulfilled her goals as the first woman to piloted across the Atlantic in a
record-breaking time of Thirteen hours and thirty minutes (Willey). Despite
being overlooked because of her gender, Earhart overcomes many obstacles to
change the aviation scene.
A
quality that strongly resembles Amelia Earhart is that she is independence.
When she got married to her close friend George Putman, she called her marriage
as a “partnership” with “dual control” (Edwin). In her prenup, Earhart stresses
that they “should not interfere with each other work” and “I must
exact a cruel promise and that is you will let me go in a year if we find no
happiness together.” (Hess). This is a powerful statement because back then, no
woman was strong enough to write such things. Earhart felt that there should be
nothing holding her back from achieving greatness and she want not only her
husband but women of all ages to know that they should not be bound to anyone.
Not only her quality of independence shine in her marriage, but it also shows
through her work ethic. she wanted to be independent and did not want help from
her mom. After numerous amount of jobs, which includes file clerk, office
assistant, photographer, and truck driver, she was able to save enough to buy
her own plane(Amelia Earhart Biography). The idea of independence for woman
back in the 1900s were not talk about but Earhart change that and encourage
many women out there to rise up and live their own life.
From
her short tomboy hairstyle and relaxed dress code, Amelia Earhart transcends
gender role in the early nineteenth century. Her determination, courage and
independence nature paved way for many young inspired women to become the
person they want to be in life.
The
first and most popular theory on the disappearance of Amelia Earhart was that
she survived and died on Gardner Island. On May 21, 1937, aviator Amelia Earhart
and her navigator Fred Noonan left Oakland California in the Lockheed Model
10-E Electra attempting to circulate around the globe (Greshko 1). While en
route to Howland Island for refuel, Earhart radio transmission with the U.S.
Coast Guard cutter Itasca which was circulating around Howland Island waiting
for Earheart arrival became broken and erratic (1). One of Earhart last radio
transmission to the Itasca “we are in line 157 337” and “We are running on line
north and south” referring to their line
of position gave theorist clues to where she could have landed at (1). Gardner
Island (renamed to Nikumaroro) is placed between the line of 157 337 on the
equator and possibly would be the best option for Earhart to land if they were
to miss Howland Island ( 1).
Following a week
after Earhart disappearance, hundreds of people call in claiming their heard
Earhart distress call. A resident in St. John, New Brunswick, Canada claimed that she heard Amelia distress call,
“Can you read me? Can you read me? This is Amelia Earhart … Please come in.” (Connor 1). Of all the calls that got sent in,
executive of TIGHAR Richard Gillespie determine that only about half of them
were credible (1). He also conducted a research to further add credibility to
the calls by looking at the low and high tides of Nikumaroro. He found that
there was a correlation between the time of the calls and time of the tides.
Gillespie believes that Earhart did not want to risk damaging the engine thus why
she only send out distress call at night when the tides are low (1). However,
several Navy airplane flew over Nikumaroro but did not find any evidence of
Earhart or her plane (1).
Four years after her
disappearance a British Colonial Service Officer named Gerald Gallagher found
remains of bones and skull which he sends a telegram to the Acting
Administrative Officer in Tarawa, David Wernham “... skull which is just
possibly that of Amelia Earhart” (Meyer 1). He also found a shoe and a sextant
box which is a tool used for celestial navigation. The bones then transfer to
Fiji where Dr. Hoodless, who had no forensic anthropology knowledge determined
that the bones belonged to a European man and height of about five feet and
five inches but Earhart is measured at around five feet and eight inches tall
(Joyce 1). In 2018, a professor emeritus of anthropology Richard Jantz
re-analyze the bones documentation of Dr. Hoodless and concluded that it is
most likely belong to Amelia Earhart. He places the measurement through a
Fordisc; "a computer program for estimating sex, ancestry, and stature
from skeletal measurements,” which determine that Hoodless what wrong about the
gender of the remains (Neuman 1). Jantz also uses her photo as reference to
compare with the bones by looking at the ratio of the humerus to the radius
which came out to be 0.756 and Earhart predicted ratio is 0.76 (1). However,
due to a variety of factor such as the possibility of incorrect measurement by
Dr. Hoodless or if the photo analysis is trustable, it cannot be determined if
it is indeed Amelia Earhart without DNA evidence which is impossible because
theorist believes that Dr. Hoodless
discarded the bones after he was done (1).
In 1991, The
International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) made an expedition
to Nikumaroro Island to further search for any evidence regarding Earhart where
about (Lande 1). They found a scrap of aluminum about Nineteen inches wide and
twenty-three inches long that appeared similar to the same one on Earhart
Electra. Forensic imaging expert Jeff Glickman was determined to match the
photo of Amelia’s plane and the aluminum piece found on Nikumaroro (1). He uses
photo analysis and hyperspectral imaging that can detect a vast spectrum of
colors that are invisible to the naked eye to see if he can find any unique
features between the newspaper photograph of the Electra and the aluminum scrap
(1). If he succeeds, then it proves that it does belong to Earhart Electra.
However, this had not yet succeeded (1). Even though TIGHAR and Glickman share the same theory that the scrap
belongs to Amelia Earhart’s plane, Elgen Long who spent decades researching on
Earhart disappearance disagrees with their theory. He believed that the scrap
did not belong to Earhart’s plane. Edward Werner, an employee of Lockheed who
helps work on Earhart actual plane blacked up Long claimed (1). The 1991
expedition by TIGHAR also discovered a shoe with a rubber sole that contains
the imprint “Cat’s Paw Rubber Company
USA”, which is the same company of shoe that Earhart has seen wearing in a
photograph just a few days before her flight (Joyce). However, this piece of
evidence deems debunked because the shoe size was nine which is too big for her
(1). Till this day, this castaway theory is popular among theorist and many
believe that she died on Nikumaroro.
While some believe
that Earhart died on Nikumaroro, there is a notion that she and Noonan were
spies for the U.S government who landed on the Marshall Islands which was
occupied by the Japanese at the time captured and imprisoned her. A recent
photo from the U.S National Archives indicates what appeared to be Earhart and
her navigator Fred Noonan. The photo shows a woman with short pixie hair with
her back turning away from the camera and a man who theorist believe to be
Noonan standing a few feet from Earhart (Satherley 1). A man named William
Sablan claimed that his uncle told him “ in 1937, two Americans - a man and a
woman - were brought to the prison after being found with their crashed plane
in the Marshall Islands” (1). He also said that they were executed after two or
three days in prison and “their bodies were exhumed by an American military
branch and shipped back to the United States (1). Where those bodies are now is
somebody's own question to answer." However, the Japanese Archives has no
information on the imprisonment of Amelia Earhart. To further debunk this
theory, a Japanese military blogger found the exact photo in a book published
in 1935 while Earhart disappearance occurred in 1937 (1). While others believed
she was executed by the Japanese, some believe that they released her and came
back to the U.S under a different name. An author named Joe Klaas wrote a book
claiming Earhart live under the alias Irene Bolam in Monroe Township, New
Jersey. Bolam did not like his claim and sued publisher Mcgraw-Hill (Mondon 1).
The third most
popular theory is that Earhart simply crashes into the Pacific ocean while
searching for Howland Island. She stated that she was near Howland and was low
on gas which prompted many theorists to believe this theory. In 2002, Nauticos
president David Jourdan put on an expedition to search for Earhart plane
wreckage by using high tech sonar to search a vast area near Howland (Greshko
1). However, they did not find any evidence of Earhart plane (1). They follow
up with their 2006 expedition which also failed as well. In 2009, with the help
of deep-sea robots, Ted Waitt assemble a crew to further explore the bottom of
the ocean near Howland but the mission ends up with no evidence of Earhart
plane (1).
The theory that shine
the most light on the disappearance of Amelia Earhart is the one that stated
she crashed at Nikumaroro and died as a castaway. Most of the evidence strongly
point to the fact that she might have land there. The shoe, bones, and scrap of
metal further solidify that she was there. A survey at College of the Mainland
show that more than half of the people believed that she survive the plane
crash and died as a castaway. Thus, this theory is the most probable and easy
for most to believe.
1) She
crashed on Nikumaroro and died as a castaway
2) The
Japanese captured and executed her
3) Her
plane ran out of fuel and crash on the Pacific ocean
Until
researchers present DNA evidence, find any true confirmation that
Earhart inhabited the island of Nikumaroro or proof of her plane on the bottom
of the ocean, this mystery will remain unsolved.
Work Cited
“Amelia Earhart
Biography.” Encyclopedia of World Biography, www.notablebiographies.com/Du-Fi/Earhart-Amelia.html.
Connor, Alex.
“Amelia Earhart's Last Days: New Distress Call Analysis Provides Intimate
Portrait of Her Final Week.” USA Today,
Gannett Satellite Information Network, 24 July 2018, www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/07/24/amelia-earhart-birthday-distress-call/782617002/.
Edwins, Laura.
“Amelia Earhart: Pilot and Feminist.” The
Christian Science Monitor, The Christian Science Monitor, 24 July 2012, www.csmonitor.com/Technology/Tech-Culture/2012/0724/Amelia-Earhart-Pilot-and-feminist.
Greshko, Michael.
“Top 3 Theories for Amelia Earhart's Disappearance.” National Geographic, National Geographic Society, 11 July 2017,
news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/07/amelia-earhart-disappearance-theories-spd/.
Hess, Amanda.
“Amelia Earhart's Prenup: I Won't Be Faithful, I Won't Stop Working, and I
Might Want to Break Up Soon.” Slate
Magazine, 11 Dec. 2012, www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2012/12/11/amelia_earhart_s_marriage_prenup_i_won_t_be_faithful_i_won_t_stop_working.html.
Joyce, Christopher.
“Bones, Shoes May Have Been Amelia Earhart's.” NPR, NPR, 3 Dec. 1998, www.npr.org/1998/12/02/1032135/bones-shoes-may-have-been-amelia-earharts.
Lande, David. “Can
Imaging Analysis Solve Mystery of Amelia Earhart's Disappearance?” National Geographic, National Geographic
Society, 5 Nov. 2014,
news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/11/141104-amelia-earhart-forensic-photo-spectral-imaging-analysis/.
Meyer, David. “Amelia Earhart's
Lost Skeleton? - Guerrilla Explorer.” DAVID
MEYER, 24 Nov. 2015, www.davidmeyercreations.com/mysteries-of-history/amelia-earhart/amelia-earharts-lost-skeleton/.
Mondon, Marielle.
“How One Writer Hypothesized Amelia Earhart Was a New Jersey Housewife All This
Time.” PhillyVoice, 6 July 2017, www.phillyvoice.com/how-one-writer-hypothesized-amelia-earhart-was-just-new-jersey-housewife-all-time/.
Neuman, Scott. “New
Research Claims Bones Found 80 Years Ago On Pacific Atoll Likely Amelia
Earhart's.” NPR, NPR, 8 Mar. 2018, www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/03/08/591950171/new-research-claims-bones-found-80-years-ago-on-pacific-atoll-likely-amelia-earh.
Satherley, Dan. “Was
Amelia Earhart Executed by the Japanese?” Newshub,
26 Nov. 2017, www.newshub.co.nz/home/world/2017/11/was-amelia-earhart-executed-by-the-japanese.html.
Willey, Maren.
“Amelia Earhart .” Lesson Plan - Amelia
Earhart,
teacherlink.ed.usu.edu/tlresources/units/Byrnes-famous/Earhart.html.
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