Amelia Earhart disappeared in July 1937 presumably in the middle of an around the world flight. The remains of her aircraft is still a large source of uneasy questioning. The Lockheed Electra was never found. To this day, the history of aviation has no greater mystery.
TIGHAR’s New Search for Amelia Earhart
The search for Amelia Earhart resumes in full force on June 8th. Nikumaroro Island, Kiribati, an atoll in the South Pacific may have the answers to the many questions Earhart’s disappearance left unanswered. International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) is leading the expedition and will be Nikumaroro bound. If they could discover anything more about Earhart’s disappearance, it would have all be worth it.
TIGHAR has made a total of 10 Amelia Earhart expeditions in the past 27 years. This time they won’t be alone. A 68-passenger cruise ship with passengers paying $11,000 a piece will be joining them in hopes of witnessing what could be a historic game-changing discovery: finding Amelia Earhart’s missing aircraft.
The 1st Female Aviator To Fly Solo Across the Atlantic
Amelia Earhart was the first female aviator to fly alone across the Atlantic Ocean. A household name, her untimely, sudden disappearance left the nation on the edges of their seats, hoping against hope for her return. She was accompanied only by her navigator, Freed Noonan. Both were never heard from again.
The word in the aviation community is that the chances are high that Earhart and her Noonan ended up in Nikumaroro. It is 360 miles away from Howland Island which was Earhart’s next stop. The Nikumaroro Island or “Gardner Island Hypothesis” (because Nikumaroro is sometimes called Gardner Island) the theory that Earhart and Noonan’s ended up having to force land on the island after running out of gas. They probably survived for a few weeks after distress signals did not do its part.
The Gardner Island Hypothesis arose from TIGHAR’s past expeditions in search of Earhart. During a 1991 expedition, a piece of aircraft that appeared to be a part of Earhart’s window was found in the atoll. Expeditions on the atoll from the 1930s included a shoe resembling the Oxford she would wear. Before this finding, it was believed that Earhart had crashed into the Pacific Ocean.
A Solo Mission in the Spirit of Ms. Earhart
June 8th marks the beginning of the new search for Amelia Earhart. TIGHAR’s team will include 14 volunteers who will do a most thorough search for clue in the surrounding waters and entirety of the island, in hopes of solving this ever-intriguing mystery. They will return from this sortie on July 1st, hopefully with new information for the books.
