Unsolved mystery of Amelia Earhart

Whilst the researchers and experts have done their tremendous job to determine the facts of what went wrong with the most celebrated female aviator of the world. There are locals in PNG and the Pacific Islands have interestingly formed a enigma out of the last port of call, Lae Papua New Guinea.  

From 1937 up till now, aviation experts and researchers have exhausted their capacity to establish any lead evidences in the search for the parts of the plane or herself and his navigator (Fred Noonan) but remains a futile effort.  Many people have invested in documentaries about the mysterious disappearance of Amelia but the mystery still remains a mystery.

Looking back into her brief life in the 1930s, she was nothing short of a legend; one of the most celebrated aviators of the world. She has inked herself into the world history books as the first woman to fly solo over the Atlantic, she went on to become the first woman to fly solo non-stop across the continental United States and the first person in the world to successfully fly one of the most hazardous routes which is between Honolulu in Hawaii  and Oakland, California.

In 1937 Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, set out to attempt (for the second time) to fly around the world in a twin-engine Lockheed Electra. They left Miami in the United States on June 01. After schedule stops in South America, Africa, India and Southeast Asia, they arrived into Lae, Papua New Guinea on June 29. Their arrival into Lae confirmed the completion of 22 000 miles of the journey with just 7 000 miles remaining. The plane vanished on the final leg, somewhere over the Central Pacific before a refueling stop planned for Howland Island, an uninhibited coral island located 1 700 nautical  miles Southeast of Honolulu.

From the extensive research information available, it is confirmed that; the Lockheed Electra 10E was heavily loaded from Lae when it was on its way to Howland Island before its final leg. The trip was supposed to last approximately eighteen (18) hours. The USA coastguard ship ITASCA was patrolling off the coast of Howland Island at that time was to provide communication support to Earhart for landing as she neared the island.

What is interesting to note is; one of her last messages which she kept saying over the radio; she could not see the island and that fuel was running low. If this message was proven to be true then she must have been out of Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and mostly the Melanesian land and sea boundaries. However, there are some interesting conspiracy theories, hypothesis and speculations being developed by anthropologists, scientists and even The International Group of Historical Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) supports the Nikumaroro Island Theory from Fiji Islands. Even, there are some more unanswered questions about the theory; the convincing fact about Nikumaroro Island theory is that; Earhart and Noonan died on the island of Nikumaroro as castaways and 12 bones found are reconfirmed to be matching Earhart and Noonan's bone. Various scientific tests have been repeated to establish the basis and the Nikumaroro Island Theory continues.

From the theory; it is assumed that other bones must have been eaten by the coconut crabs which are endemic to the island. For those who are convinced by the Nikumaroro Theory, please read this TIGHAR link to enlighten further and provide your own conclusions.   

Back to Papua New Guinea, there are two provinces which claims to have found the remains of Earhart and have drawn worldwide attention. The discovery on Buka island of a plane relating and believed to be Earhart's was published on BBC and Daily Mail in UK making headlines about the location of the mystery plane after 70 plus years. The locals have firm believe on their discovery which assumed to be a treasure worth millions of dollars. No one cares to consider the countless planes that have crash landed into the dense jungles, sea, waterways, swamps, mountains and valleys of PNG during the WWII. The manufactures of those planes could not go wrong with serial numbers and specifications which makes identification easier even after decades of wear and tear with few or single remaining piece of the plane provides base information.

Leaving the Nikumaroro Island Theory behind, Marty of TIGHAR confirmed the discovery on Bougainville island to be another hypothesis related theory by saying; "There are strong indications that the aircraft is a Lockheed Model 10 Electra which took off from Lae on July 2nd 1937 destined for Howland Island. The crash site is in direct alignment with Earhart’s flight path out of Lae, past north of Buka Island in a straight northeast direction to Howland." 

This further confuses the followers of Earhart's story, scientists and researchers who have been working  tirelessly to establish lead evidences into the technically verify crash sites for Earhart. Unless there were some technical and mechanical issues that must have combined with Pacific's weather patterns to sway away Earhart's plane off-course from the Radio Direction Indicator Bearing and crash landed at the locations away from the proposed route undertaken or if it was not already near to Howland Islands.

Many followers, researchers and scientists would make substantive  conclusions of the possible location following the last messages and distress calls (mayday) from Earhart. In this view, the last message will only provide the clues leading to possible location.As a writer/critic to his issue; the last distress calls were possible lead information to locations and places like; Nikumaroro Island, Bougainville and West New Britian. For some of these places, it needs an aviator expert of the 1930s to conclude and erase or keep these places in the research books in search for Earhart. The careful analysis of the distress call signals and location must have been overused on the researches but that appears to be the only central part of the technical and scientific research where many conclusions can be drawn for possible locations or exists as a mystery forever.   

Not only the Bougainville discovery after the Nikumaroro Island theory was supported for possible verification and scientific tests but there is another location in West New Britian is said to be the cash site for Earhart. The stories reaching some of the state agencies indicates that; the locals from Kandrian District are building local museum in remembrance of Earhart and developing track to the possible crash site. The discovered crash site and some basic technical information of the aircraft are found on this link from Loop PNG which explains the discovery and vaguely confirms but nothing technically substantiated.  The local and senior journalist Malum Nalum wrote on his blog about the discovery; ''Suddenly they came upon a wrecked aircraft - a twin engine, twin tailed plane much like that of Earhart's.' When Malum communicated with the experts to gather information, one of them could tell Malu of the unjustifiable location of West New Britian which is some 2000 miles away from Howland. Hence, this is also another speculation and conspiracy theory but most of the PNG people would preferably say; 'a cargo cult' trend being developed out of Earhart mystery.

To make it easy, lets not discuss further on the discovery of Earhart's crash sites on Solomon Islands since the route for Earhart indicated on the Radio Direction Indicator Bearing shows,  Solomon Islands lays several miles Southeast of the route Earhart took. That confirms that, Solomon Island is off the research radar or otherwise mysteriously and out of profound links.

The last call from Earhart clearly confirms that; she was near Howland island and was trying to locate the island to land at the same time plane was running low with fuel. That means she must have traveled the calculated miles and tried to scan the area to find the specific island to land and she met her mysterious fate due to low fuel or visibility issues due to the weather. If there were some people who monitored her flights then her distress calls must have been well recorded or coastguard ITASCA and those within the reachable zones must have missed it.

Certainly, there were military bases established within the Pacific Islands by the colonial powers who were claiming territories and building empires before the WWII broke out in 1942. The tensions between the Allies and Axis Forces during the prewar periods are situations that an expert needs to confirm if Earhart has fallen victim of prewar tensions in the Pacific during her journey.

Earhart's disappearance was great tragedy but her legacy lives on to this day. For she has inspired and encouraged the inclusion of women in what was then an emerging commercial industry completely dominated by men.

If Earhart's mysterious disappearance was one of those aviation industry's glitch in the  1930s then I'm wondering what happened to the MH370 - Malaysian Airline which disappeared in 2014 without a trace in the aviation history of 20th century. With exception to Earhart being the latter and her legacy is heroic because of her courage to fly on a small plane alone those times.

I will always remember her as a hero for being one of those fearless women who was out for realities on the aviation history. Her experiences would have contributed immensely in the aviation industry if she did lived to tell.

Hence her quote fitted her selfless adventurous life and I quote; 

The most difficult thing is the decisions to act, the rest is merely tenacity - Amelia Earhart 

Picture taken off  from Aerotime News website