Amelia Earhart took off from California in 1937 in an attempt to become the first person to fly around the world. During her flight, she lost radio contact near the Howland Islands and was never seen again, despite extensive search efforts. There are several theories about what happened to Earhart, including that she crashed into the Pacific out of fuel, landed on Gardner Island and died before rescue, or was captured by the Japanese military on Saipan and died in captivity. Evidence for the different theories includes artifacts found on Gardner Island and a photo from the National Archives that some believe shows Earhart and her navigator in Japanese custody after their plane was captured.

1. The Disappearance of
Amelia Earhart
By
Donavin Martin

2. What Happen to her During the
Flight
• On June 1, 1937, Amelia Earhart took off from Oakland,
California, on an eastbound flight around the world. It was her
second attempt to become the first pilot ever to circumnavigate
the globe. She flew a twin-engine Lockheed 10E Electra and was
accompanied on the flight by navigator Fred Noonan. With 7,000
miles remaining, the plane lost radio contact near the Howland Islands.
It was never found, despite an extensive search that continued for
decades, they never found her.

3. When did Amelia Earhart get
interested in flying?
• Earhart was 12 years old before she ever saw an airplane, and she did
not take her first flight until 1920. Amelia Earhart was so thrilled by
her first airplane ride that she quickly began to take flying lessons. She
wrote, "As soon as I left the ground, I knew I myself had to fly."

4. What are other
people's theory's

5. Theory #1: Earhart ran out of fuel,
crashed and perished in the Pacific
Ocean.
• This is one of the most generally accepted versions of
the famous aviator’s disappearance. Many experts
believe Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan
got slightly off course a route to a refueling stop at
Howland Island in the Pacific Ocean. Earhart radioed
U.S. Coast Guard ships stationed in the area,
reporting that neither she nor Noonan could spot the
tiny island where they were supposed to land.
According to the so called “crash-and-sink” theory,
the plane eventually ran out of gas and plunged into
the ocean, killing both Earhart and Noonan. It then
sank, leaving no sign of their whereabouts.

6. Theory #2: Earhart landed safely
on Gardner Island but died
before she could be rescued.
• In this scenario, Earhart missed her intended
Pacific Ocean refueling site, Howland Island, but
spotted Gardner Island now called Nikumaroro, an
uninhabited coral atoll nearby. She landed safely
but died before she could be rescued. This theory
has gained ground in recent years due to the
discovery on Nikumaroro of artifacts that could be
related to Earhart. Items include an empty jar of the
freckle cream she preferred and a piece of Plexiglas
like that used in the Lockheed Electra airplane she
flew. The International Group for Historic Aircraft
Recovery recently launched its seventh expedition
to the island to search for more clues.
•

7. Theory #3: Earhart’s flight was an
elaborate scheme to spy on the Japanese,
who captured her after she crashed.
• Did President Franklin D. Roosevelt enlist Earhart
to spy on Japan? If so, the aviator did it in a very
roundabout fashion. Earhart’s east-to-west route
took her from California to South America, across
Africa to India and across the northern tip of
Australia a route to a refueling stop at Howland
Island in the Pacific Ocean. According to the official
account, at least, Earhart never got anywhere close
to Japan. Besides, her flight was hardly a secret
mission: Newspapers around the world tracked her
progress on their front pages. The Earhart-as-spy
theory emerged from a 1943 film about Earhart
called “Flight for Freedom” and starring Rosalind
Russell, but no evidence supports its veracity.

8. Theory #4: Earhart crash-landed, was
captured by the Japanese military and
died while being held prisoner on the
island of Saipan.
• In 2017, investigators announced the discovery of a photo,
buried in the National Archives for nearly 80 years, that may
depict Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan days after their
disappearance. According to the team, led by former Executive
Assistant Director of the FBI Shawn Henry, Earhart crash-
landed in the Marshall Islands, was captured by the Japanese
military and died while being held prisoner on the island of
Saipan. Retired federal agent Les Kinney scoured the archives
for records related to the Earhart case, uncovering a photo from
the Office of Naval Intelligence that shows a ship towing a
barge with an airplane on the back; on a nearby dock are
several people. Kinney believes the plane on the barge is the
Electra, and that two of the people on the dock are Earhart and
Noonan. The of Earhart’s fate isn’t a new one; it first surfaced
back in the 1960s and relies on accounts of Marshall Islanders
who supposedly saw the Electra aircraft land and witnessed
Earhart and Noonan in Japanese custody. In 2015, Kinney and
another amateur Earhart sleuth, Dick Spink, found two metal
fragments on Mile atoll in the Marshalls, which they believed
came from Earhart’s plane.

9. References
https://www.history.com/topi
cs/exploration/amelia-
earhart
01
https://www.americaslibrary.
gov/aa/earhart/aa_earhart_l
earns_1.html
02
https://kids.nationalgeograph
ic.com/
03
https://www.history.com/new
s/what-happened-to-amelia-
9-tantalizing-theories-about-
the-earhart-disappearance
04

10. Thank You For
Reading