Earhart Search Records Declassified

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.

In September, President Donald Trump ordered the details of the 1937 disappearance declassified, making them available from the National Archives.

The files consist of photostats and copies of photostats of records relating to plans for the around-the-world flight, including a letter written by Earhart to President Franklin Roosevelt, where she outlines her proposed route and notes she will need to refuel over the Pacific.

Earhart was friends with the Roosevelts, in particular Eleanor, the first lady. On one occasion, the pair ducked out of a state dinner to go flying—both dressed in evening gowns. 

In the letter dated November 10, 1936, Earhart describes the airplane she has obtained through Purdue University. The purpose of the letter was to ask the president to use his influence to gain the cooperation of the U.S. Navy during her flight.

“I want to reduce as much as possible the hazard of the takeoff at Honolulu with the excessive overload,” the letter reads. “With that in view, I am discussing with the Navy a possible refueling in the air over Midway Island.”

The letter’s last sentence is underlined: “With the Midway refueling, she will have ample gas to reach Tokio [misspelling by Earhart].”

She mentions discussions with Admiral Arthur Cook and Admiral William Standley—chief of Naval Operations under Roosevelt—about the flight, adding that she has been working on getting international permissions through the State Department.

“The flight, by the way, has no commercial implications,” the letter reads. “The operation of my ‘flying laboratory’ is under the auspices of Purdue University. Like previous flights, I am undertaking this one solely because I want to, and because I feel that women now and then have to do things to show what women can do.”

The letter ends: “If any information is wanted as to purpose, plane, equipment, etc., Mr. Putnam (Earhart’s husband and financial backer, George) can meet anyone you designate any time anywhere.”

Then, in a P.S.: “My plans are for the moment entirely confidential—no announcement has been made.”

A handwritten note at the top of the letter reads: “Do what we can and contact Mr. Putnam.”

Mission Reports

The documents available for viewing and download include radio logs for the Itasca, the Coast Guard vessel assigned picket duty at Howland Island, and reports filed by both the Coast Guard and Navy personnel in the field.

The reports are written on a manual typewriter in a serif font. The copies of the photostats have dropouts, so reading the reports takes patience and perseverance.

Final Radio Contact

Earhart and Noonan were using celestial navigation for the open water crossing, and among the theories put forth over the decades was that Noonan was unable to get a sighting of the sun as it rose that morning, or the computations were in error, either of which would put the aircraft off course.

Experts note that, on the best of days, finding Howland Island, which is an atoll, is a navigational challenge.

Radio navigation and communication as we know it now was in its infancy. At the time, aircraft radios used tubes and were large and heavy. 

The Electra was equipped with a Western Electric Model 13C radio transmitter and a Bendix aircraft receiver. The Electra was identified as KHAQQ with a power of 50 watts, capable of both voice and Morse code transmissions on several frequencies: 500, 3105, and 6210 KHz. The aircraft was also equipped with a Bendix direction-finding radio.

Images of the Lockheed show the loop-style antennae over the windscreen.

According to historians, the Lockheed was delivered with a second antenna for 500 KHz. This second antenna was a trailing-wire type that was reeled out of the belly of the aircraft to boost reception. It had a full length of 250 feet and, combined with the mechanism for its deployment, weighed several hundred pounds. It was allegedly left behind on the last leg of the flight to save weight.

Last Contact

Earhart was last heard from on the morning of July 2, 1937. According to the reports, that morning the Itasca was moored next to Howland Island and laying down heavy smoke.

Based on the information from the radio transmissions, it was presumed that the aircraft was in the clouds for the last leg of the flight, as they headed toward Howland Island, where they expected to land and refuel, as a runway had been built for this purpose and barrels of fuel were on standby.

According to the Itasca radio log:

0614 Howland time: (15 minutes before the flight’s published Estimated Time of Arrival)

Earhart: Two hundred miles out and no landfall.

0646:

Earhart: Approximately 100 miles from Itasca—position doubtful.

0742:

Earhart: 30 minutes gas remaining. No landfall. Position doubtful.

0758:

Earhart: Circling trying to pick up island.

0843:

Earhart: Upon a position line 157-337 degrees.

The last “authentic” transmission for Earhart, according to the report, came at 0855: “Heading north and south.”

In the days that followed, there were reports of ham radio operators on the West Coast and as far inland as Montana picking up radio transmissions allegedly from the Lockheed Electra. Some were more credible than others—one received by the HMS Achilles 225 miles north-northwest of Howland was reported as “Putnam __ fly kite,” which was encouraging because part of the safety equipment aboard the Lockheed was a bright orange box kit with a special antenna to boost radio signals.

The radio calls were scrutinized and if found credible, search crews were sent to the area. The Lockheed company was skeptical of the reports that stated the airplane was in the water, as although the aircraft was designed to float with empty fuel tanks, provided they were not compromised, the aircraft’s normal radio power supply would not work if the airplane was in the water.

In the search reports, there is much speculation about how the crew managed their fuel and if they had encountered a headwind that caught them by surprise. There are several mentions of “what if” they used a particular power setting over another to increase the aircraft’s endurance from 24 hours to 20.

The search spanned 16 days, with sea-going vessels and aircraft searching thousands of miles of open water and atolls and small islands, looking for any sign of the aircraft or Earhart and Noonan. The search crews carefully flew grid patterns to the west-northwest of Howland Island, following the drifting currents. 

The Lockheed was equipped with a rubber life raft, and had Earhart and Noonan had survived the ditching, it was hoped they would have made it into the raft. However, no wreckage or even an oil slick was spotted.

One report describes how the group attached to the USS Lexington “covered an area of approximately 300 square miles to the west and northwest of Howland, which concluded all probable positions of the plane or passengers if afloat; as an additional but unlikely possibility, the Gilbert Islands were searched. It is regrettably unreasonable to conclude [anything] other than the unfortunate fliers were not on water upon conclusion of the search.”

Theories

One of the more prevalent theories about the disappearance of the fliers was that they were captured by the Japanese for spying over the Marshall Islands.

Among the letters in the file is one dated January 1939 from someone who described finding a letter in a bottle that contained a lock of chestnut-colored hair that was reportedly Earhart’s. The letter states that Earhart and Noonan had been captured and were being held prisoner in a Japanese fortress.

The records can be found here.