Everybody, welcome to the final installation of Cold Case Mysteries with Rohith Koneru, I am your host Rohith Koneru and I am actually sad to end this great series of blogs. I usually have no interest in AP Lit activities but these blogs were actually kinda fun. Today, we are covering the disappearance of Amelia Earhart, one of the most famous unsolved mysteries of all time, especially because Amelia Earhart is one of the most famous women in history. Let’s get into the case.

On July 2, 1937, Amelia Earhart, along with her navigator Fred Noonan, disappeared while attempting to be the first person to ever circumnavigate the globe. I just have one question, why would you ever want to circumnavigate the globe? Don’t get me wrong, flying is really fun, for the first 30 seconds after taking off. After that, my butt starts hurting, my long legs get suffocated, and I am forced to sit in weird positions in order to survive the rest of the flight. Flying is not fun. Amelia Earhart must’ve been crazy to want to fly around the world in her dinky 1900s plane. 

On June 17, 1928, Earhart became the first woman to cross the Atlantic, even though she was a passenger that didn’t fly the plane at all. However, she became the first woman to pilot a plane across the Atlantic when she made the 15-hour trip from Newfoundland to Ireland on May 20th, 1932. She showed her great skill as a pilot when she dealt with problems such as ice on the wings of her plane, a leak in the fuel tank, and her engine catching on fire. She also set the record for the longest flight without refueling and was the first female pilot to complete a nonstop transcontinental flight. It is safe to say that she was the Micheal Jordan of flying.

In 1937, Amelia embarked on a 29,000-mile, 40-day flight around the equator. I’ll say it again, this chick must be crazy. Every time I take the 19-hour flight to India, I feel like I want to die, but Amelia “Babe of the Sky” Earhart over here wants to go on a 40-day flight? I say put her in an insane asylum.

It is important to note that Amelia flew in a special plane called the Twin Engine Lockheed 10-Electra which could hold a 1000 pounds of fuel. A whopping 42 days into her journey, Earhart and her navigator were preparing to leave Lae, New Guinea for the final 7000 miles of her expedition. When departing from Lae, the Electra was filled to the brim with 1000 pounds of fuel in order to make the 18-hour flight to Howland Island in order to refuel. Harry Balfour, the radio operator in Lae,   made an agreement with Earhart to send transmissions to each other every hour. After takeoff, Balfour noticed stronger headwind speeds than predicted and tried to relay warn Earhart, however, she didn’t seem to get the transmissions from Balfour.

Around 2 pm, Balfour finally received a transmission from Amelia; she gave her speed, altitude, and said the status of the flight was ok. It is important to note that the altitude Amelia reported was 7000 feet. This is important because in her next transmission an hour later, she stated that she had risen to 10,000 feet, a move that would’ve been very uneconomical fuel-wise. It is unknown why Earhart rose in altitude. 

As Amelia and Noonan neared Howland Island, their destination, it is estimated that they would’ve been down to their last 100 gallons of fuel. Off the coast of the island, a boat called the Itasca was stationed in order to provide weather and communications to Earhart as she got closer to the island via radio. We know that Earhart did get close to the island because the Itasca heard her transmissions, which grew stronger as time went on. In one of her final transmissions to the Itasca, Earhart told the crew “We must be on you but cannot see you” and “Gas is running low”.  

Amelia last recorded transmission was received by the Itasca, she told them “We are on the line 157, 337. We will repeat message. We Will repeat this on 6210 kilocycles. Wait.” It is sad that Earhart’s voice was frantic in these final transmissions and she was never heard from again.

Over the following weeks, the Itasca along with two other ships would search for Earhart, however, not a single sign of Earhart, Noonan, or their plane was found. With all that information out of the way, let’s get into the theories.

Theory 1:

First, the most likely theory, Amelia and Noonan ran out of fuel due to the strong headwind and 3000-foot altitude climb and crashed into the ocean. While it is said that Amelia’s plane on a full tank should’ve lasted 24 hours instead of just 20, the JPL calculated that with the 3000-foot altitude climb and the strong headwind, Amelia’s plane would’ve lasted 20 hours, which lines u with the timing of Amelia’s last transmission. 

However, from 2002 to 2017, a 2,000 square nautical mile was searched where Earhart could’ve crashed. They used advanced techniques like sonar mapping, but no trace of Amelia was found. 

Theory 2:

The second theory is that Earhart became a cast away on a nearby island called Nikumaroro. Nikumaroro is on the line 157, 337, and is only 350 Nautical miles away from Howland Island. Earhart could’ve spotted the small island while panicking and decided to have an emergency landing due to low fuel. During low tide, it could’ve been possible for Earhart to pull off an emergency landing on the shore of the island. You may believe this to be all speculation, and you right, however, roughly 2 years later, British Colonial Officer Gerald Gallagher found remnants of a campsite on the island. He also found a tool for calculating latitude and longitude and a partial human skeleton along with 12 bones. Amelia and Noonan? 

The bones were given to a physician who determined that the bones belonged to a European man who was short and stocky, which means they could not belong to Earhart or Noonan. This theory would’ve ended right there, however, the physician literally BURNED THE BONES. With this fact, I think that the physician is Amelia’s main opp. I think that he purposely burned the bones so that no one could get closure on her death.

The measurements taken by the physician were reanalyzed years later and it was found that the bones could’ve belonged to a taller-than-average woman, and guess what, Amelia Earhart was 5’ 8”. 

It is speculated that Amelia and Noonan could’ve been eaten alive by the 3-FOOT LONG CRABS that live on the island. These crabs, called the coconut crabs, can rip open a coconut with their claws and could’ve easily killed Earhart and taken some of her bones with them. On top of that, Amelia could’ve used her plane’s radio to signal for help for a week as long as the radio wasn’t underwater. Sure enough, Several radio transmissions were heard from Earhart throughout the week after her crash, all of which, were during low tide on Takumaroro. One girl named Betty Klenck claimed that she heard one of Amelia’s transmissions on her short-wave radio. She claims that a female voice said “This is Amelia Earhart, Help me!” and also that the female voice was arguing with a male voice in the background. This finding was reported to the Coast Guard, however, they dismissed the claims completely.

This theory seems legit, however, multiple Navy planes flew over the island a week after Amelia’s disappearance and saw absolutely nothing.

In the end, we have two solid theories, but there is evidence against both theories, so no conclusion can be made about Amelia’s disappearance. Who knows? Maybe aliens abducted her plane in the air. Unfortunately, we will most likely never know and this mystery remains unsolved.

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