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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