Amelia Earhart
Pilot, NR16020
Already a transatlantic celebrity and a Purdue-linked advocate for women in aviation. The world flight was her last public project. She has not been found.
Darker cells mean a higher score for this topic on that metric.
Notoriety94
Mystery92
Scale36
Evidence40
Legal impact30
Culture95
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Last reviewed Sources & creditsMedia creditsMethodology
Quick answers
When did Amelia Earhart disappear?
On 2 July 1937, during the Lae, New Guinea, to Howland Island leg of an eastbound around-the-world attempt in Lockheed Electra NR16020, with navigator Fred Noonan.
What was the last radio message?
Itasca logged Earhart at about 08:43 Howland time saying she was on the line 157–337 and running on line. She reported they were flying up and down that line and could not see the island. Two-way contact was poor.
Who was Fred Noonan?
A professional navigator, formerly of Pan American’s Pacific routes, hired for the world flight after the March 1937 Hawaii crash. He was in the Electra on 2 July. He has not been found.
What is the official explanation?
Fuel exhaustion and a ditching in the sea near Howland Island after the island was missed. That is the Navy and Coast Guard working conclusion from 1937. It has not been confirmed by a located wreck.
What is the Nikumaroro theory?
A private research argument, associated with TIGHAR, that the Electra landed on Gardner Island (Nikumaroro) on the same sun line. Fragments and a lost 1940 bone find have been debated. No government has certified the island as the crash site.
Was Earhart captured by Japanese forces?
No document trail accepted by mainstream historians shows capture or imprisonment. The last radio minutes place the aircraft on a line through Howland, not in the Marshalls. The story persists in popular English; it is not the official file.
The missing were a pilot and a navigator. The living file is a cutter’s radio room and a husband who ran publicity.
Late witness names from capture stories are omitted unless they sit in dated official paper.
People
Fred Noonan
Navigator
A Pan American-trained navigator whose celestial work was the planned fix for Howland. His last known workplace was the Electra’s right seat on 2 July 1937.
George Palmer Putnam
Husband and publicist
Organised sponsorship and press. After 2 July he pushed the search and later the legal death. His archive is a source about the flight as a public event.
Cmdr. Warner K. Thompson
Commanding officer, USCGC Itasca
His cutter’s radio log is the primary last-hours document. The ship could hear Earhart more clearly than she could hear Itasca.
Edward Elliott
President, Purdue University
Purdue’s backing bought the Electra and tied the flight to an American campus. The university’s name remains on the sponsorship paper.
Ric Gillespie
TIGHAR executive director
The most public later advocate of the Nikumaroro landing. His group’s finds are part of the historiography; they are not a Navy identification.
A cutter and a court left paper. The Electra left a radio line.
Public-record encyclopedia. Not legal advice. Not a how-to. Graphic detail is withheld. Wars belong in a separate atlas.