Amelia Earhart — Pioneer Aviatrix Vanishes Over Pacific on Record Attempt

On July 2, 1937, pioneering aviator Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan disappeared over the central Pacific Ocean while attempting to circumnavigate the globe along an equatorial route. Their Lockheed Electra had departed Lae, New Guinea on the second-to-last leg of the journey, headed for tiny Howland Island over 2,500 miles away. Earhart had become the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic in 1932 and was one of the most celebrated Americans of the era. The circumnavigation attempt was her final challenge. Radio communications in the hours before disappearance indicated she was having difficulty locating Howland Island, possibly due to navigation errors, equipment problems, or poor radio contact with the Coast Guard cutter Itasca stationed near the island. The US Navy conducted the most extensive air and sea search in its history to that point, covering 250,000 square miles and costing $4 million. No trace of Earhart, Noonan, or the aircraft was ever found. The official conclusion was that the aircraft ran out of fuel and ditched in the Pacific. Alternative theories have included capture by the Japanese military — who controlled nearby islands and may have believed the flight was a US intelligence operation — and survival on the uninhabited Nikumaroro atoll. Bone fragments and artifacts recovered on Nikumaroro have been analyzed and debated for decades. TIGHAR, a research organization, has conducted multiple expeditions to Nikumaroro and believes it to be Earhart's final resting place, though no definitive proof has been established.