Amelia Earhart in the cockpit of her Lockheed Electra 10-E [Credit: Purdue University Libraries]
Key Takeaways:
Recently declassified records from the National Archives reveal details about Amelia Earhart's 1937 disappearance, including her letter to President Roosevelt requesting U.S. Navy assistance and outlining her non-commercial, exploratory flight plans.
The documents include radio logs from her final flight, indicating navigational challenges, dwindling fuel, and increasing difficulty in locating Howland Island before her last known transmission.
A comprehensive 16-day search by the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard covered thousands of miles but found no trace of the aircraft or its crew, concluding that Earhart and Noonan were lost at sea.
It has been 88 years since Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan disappeared over the South Pacific. But until now the records of the search have remained classified.
Meg Godlewski has been an aviation journalist for more than 24 years and a CFI for more than 20 years. If she is not flying or teaching aviation, she is writing about it. Meg is a founding member of the Pilot Proficiency Center at EAA AirVenture and excels at the application of simulation technology to flatten the learning curve. Follow Meg on Twitter @2Lewski.
