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At 8:43am, Amelia Earhart made her last radio call while in the air. This was about an hour after she had informed the Coast Guard cutter Itasca that she was low on fuel and unable to locate her intended destination, Howland Island.
“I am currently located at line 157 337,” she announced from the cockpit of her Lockheed 10-E Electra plane. “I will repeat this message and also broadcast it on 6210 kilocycles. Please stand by.”
She did not reiterate the communication.
The destiny of Earhart has remained a longstanding enigma in America. In 1937, her ill-fated endeavor to become the first female to fly around the world led to the largest and most costly search mission ever conducted by the US Navy and Coast Guard.
Since that time, numerous scholars, journalists, and historians have made efforts to uncover the truth about Earhart and Noonan’s fate during their flight over the Pacific on the day they vanished.
Recent developments in deep-sea scanning technology, along with a substantial investment of $11 million, could potentially yield conclusive results.
On June 14, 1928, Amelia Earhart is pictured in front of her bi-plane, named “Friendship”, in Newfoundland.
Deep Sea discovery
A company called Deep Sea Vision, located in Charleston, South Carolina, claims to have potentially located the wreckage of Earhart’s plane on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.
In September, the corporation started surveying the bottom of the sea. Using a high-tech sonar device attached to a $9 million underwater vehicle called Hugin, they explored the dark depths and covered over 5,200 square miles in the area where Earhart’s plane is thought to have gone down.
Hugin’s sonar detected an uncommon object resembling an airplane resting in the silt and marine sediment at a depth of around 16,000 feet in the Pacific Ocean.
The deep sea scanning company has potentially located the aircraft that belonged to Amelia Earhart.
Tony Romeo, founder of Deep Sea Vision, stated in an interview with NBC’s Today show that it would be difficult to persuade him that the object in question is not an aircraft, and specifically, not Amelia Earhart’s. He also pointed out that there were no other recorded crashes in the vicinity, especially not during the same time period and with a similar tail design as seen in the image.
A previous intelligence officer for the US Air Force, Mr. Romeo, liquidated his property holdings and invested $11 million towards the search for Earhart’s missing aircraft.
“This is maybe the most exciting thing I’ll ever do in my life,” he told the Wall Street Journal. “I feel like a 10-year-old going on a treasure hunt.”
Mr Romeo remained hopeful despite his initial excitement, acknowledging that the images may potentially be of rocks or other objects underwater. However, he pointed out that the shape and size of the object in the image do match those of the aircraft Amelia Earhart flew on her final journey.
Deep Sea Vision was unable to detect the anomaly in the image until three months after it was taken, as it was one of many images captured during their scans. By that time, the crew had already traveled a significant distance from the location of the discovery.
After obtaining an image and its corresponding coordinates, the next task in solving the puzzle will involve examining the tangible evidence.
Earhart’s rise
Earhart’s vanishing marked the end of ten years of media coverage through newspaper articles and radio reports, highlighting her record-breaking flights.
At 30 years old, on June 17, 1928, she made history as the first woman to fly a plane. She flew a vibrant red Lockheed Vega 5B, affectionately named “old Bessie, the fire steed,” across the Atlantic Ocean. This achievement garnered widespread attention and media coverage.
Afterwards, she achieved the feat of being the first individual to fly alone across the Pacific, making the journey from California to the Hawaiian islands in 1934.
Initially, Earhart was viewed as an unusual figure in aviation because of her gender. News reports referred to her as the first “girl” to fly across the Atlantic, and some even called her an “aviatrix”. During this time, men were the dominant presence in the skies. However, as she continued to demonstrate her exceptional skills as a pilot, she gained recognition as a talented aviator rather than a mere curiosity. She also used her increasing fame to advocate for gender equality in aviation. In a 1929 interview with the Evening Star, Earhart urged the public to give women the opportunity to fly.
Amelia Earhart (1898 – 1937), a famous American pilot, is pictured in the center of a group of supporters and journalists upon her arrival at Hanworth airfield after successfully crossing the Atlantic.
During her time, she stated that women have the potential to excel in aviation just as they do in any other sport. She emphasized the importance of their support and endorsement in the success of commercial aviation. She also mentioned that she receives numerous letters from women and girls who are eager to learn more about aviation and their chances in the field. She believed that there is no inherent quality in women that would make them less capable than men as pilots. The only obstacle in their rapid progress is the lack of opportunities for proper training.
Following a series of highly successful and record-breaking flights in the late 1920s and early 1930s, Earhart aimed to achieve a new feat: becoming the first woman to fly around the world in an airplane.
After she went missing, people still held onto the hope that she would be found and able to fly again in the future. However, after a two-month search yielded no evidence of her or Noonan, it was assumed that they had both died.
Finding Amelia
For almost 90 years, scientists have been searching for the remains of Earhart or any clues about what happened to her after she went missing.
In 2012, the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery made a significant discovery regarding Earhart’s crash. It was found that she possibly made multiple distress calls over the radio, which were unfortunately ignored.
According to Ric Gillespie, the executive director of TIGHAR, Amelia Earhart’s disappearance on July 2, 1937 was not a simple case of vanishing. Instead, the media focused on radio distress calls that were believed to have come from the missing plane, which led to extensive search efforts by the U.S. Coast Guard and Navy. However, when the search was unsuccessful, all of the reported post-loss radio signals were immediately disregarded as fake and have been mostly overlooked since then.
According to his theory, Earhart’s plane likely crashed on Gardner Island, which is about 350 nautical miles away from her planned destination of Howland Island. He proposes that Earhart may have attempted to signal for help for a week before her plane was eventually carried away by the tides.
Mr. Gillespie had doubts about the discovery made by Deep Sea Vision.
On his Instagram page, he stated that despite the media’s exaggeration, this is not a sonar depiction of Amelia Earhart’s plane.
In 2018, scientists utilized contemporary forensics to analyze a collection of human remains discovered on Nikumaroro Island in 1940, which were considered as possibly belonging to Earhart. Anthropology professor Richard L. Jantz from the University of Tennessee conducted a study on the remains and concluded that they are most likely Earhart’s.
According to The Florida Times-Union, Mr Jantz’s theory suggests that Earhart may have landed her plane on Nikumaroo and ultimately perished while stranded on the island.
The recent findings of Deep Sea Vision have the potential to challenge our understanding of her last moments.
Next steps
Specialists in sonar technology will have to closely examine the item detected by the Deep Sea Vision before it can be verified as Amelia Earhart’s missing aircraft.
Expert Andrew Pietruszka stated to the Wall Street Journal that there is no definite way to determine what that is without physically examining it.
Mr Romeo stated that he intended to revisit the location with his team in order to obtain additional images of the object.
“The following stage involves confirmation, and there is a great deal of information we must gather regarding it. Additionally, there appears to be some level of damage. It has been in place for a span of 87 years,” he stated.
As long as Deep Sea Vision remains unavailable, the fate of Earhart’s missing airplane will remain a mystery.
“I personally believe that it is the greatest mystery of all time,” stated Mr. Romeo. “Undoubtedly, it is the most long-lasting aviation mystery of all.”
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