The mysterious disappearance of the female pilot who made history on the last flight around the world in 1937 still fascinates the public to this day.

Amelia Earhart is one of the most prominent figures in aviation history, inspiring countless films, books, and plays. Born in 1897 in Kansas, she is best known for her pioneering achievements as a female pilot in a context where women are often not associated with the field.

Even her family was opposed to her flying lessons, but overcoming all obstacles, Earhart set many records and became the first female pilot to fly solo across the Atlantic.

However, it was her mysterious disappearance during a flight around the world in 1937 that made the public fascinated to this day.

On June 1, 1937, Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan took off from Oakland, California, aboard a twin-engine Lockheed Electra known as the “Flying Laboratory.” She plans to fly around the world from west to east on 34 legs. When she disappeared, she had completed 31 stages, or more than 35,000 kilometers, and had more than 11,000 kilometers to return to her starting point.

Amelia Earhart.

Earhart’s background and aircraft

Earhart wasn’t the first to try to fly around the world. Since 1923, the U.S. Air Force has organized the first round-the-world flight, which took 175 days with four aircraft, but only two were completed.

In 1931, Wiley Post and Harold Gatty made a one-month flight around the world. Earhart intended to be the first woman to do so. Previously, she had tried but had to stop because of an accident.

Earhart’s Lockheed Electra is modernly designed, but many scholars argue that it does not have enough range for long journeys across the Pacific Ocean.

In particular, the refueling stop on Howland Island – a small, remote island, only about 3 kilometers long and about 1.6 kilometers wide – is mandatory but also risky. This is the fateful destination that made her journey fall into tragedy.

The model of the aircraft was used.
Disappearance Date

On July 2, 1937, Earhart and Noonan departed Lae, New Guinea, for an 18-hour flight, more than 4,000 kilometers, to Howland. The U.S. Coast Guard ship Itasca was waiting near its destination, carrying fuel.

Beginning at 2:45 a.m., Itasca picked up radio signals from Earhart, which grew stronger and stronger, indicating that she was approaching.
At 7:58 a.m., Itasca received its strongest signal, Earhart announced that he was flying around to find a landing island and that fuel was running low. At 8:43 a.m., she sent her final message: “We’re on Route 156-137… are running in the direction of north and south”. After that, no one heard from her anymore.

The location of the incident was a small deserted island.
The biggest search of the time

The U.S. had launched the largest aerial and sea search in history up to that point. However, they found no trace of Earhart, Noonan or Electra. The search officially ended on July 19, 1937, and on January 5, 1939, Earhart was pronounced dead.

However, over the past decades, many individuals and organizations have continued to search for clues. In 2024, a deep-sea exploration company announced that it had found a suspected object resembling the Electra through sonar images, but it was later determined to be just a block of reef.

Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan.
Why did the flight fail?

An important reason is that she and Itasca never established two-way communication. Although her plane was equipped with the state-of-the-art Bendix radio navigation system, Earhart had difficulty operating it.

She and Noonan also don’t know the Morse code, while the Itasca crew doesn’t, and they mostly use it. Shortcomings in communication techniques are believed to have prevented them from locating accurately.

The U.S. government report concluded that Earhart and Noonan ran out of fuel and fell into the ocean. But the truth after the incident is still murky, opening up countless theories.

It has been suggested that she was an American spy captured by the Japanese while spying on the islands. The more common theory is that they landed on the deserted island of Nikumaroro, where the plane’s tools and wreckage were found.

No theories have been proven, and Earhart’s disappearance remains one of the most intriguing mysteries in American history.

Still, her accomplishments and legacy continue to inspire thousands of young pilots around the world – demonstrating that despite the tragic end, Earhart’s journey has become an immortal symbol in aviation history.

Amelia Earhart was born on July 24, 1897 in Atchison, Kansas. Her father was a railroad lawyer, and her mother came from a wealthy family. From an early age, Earhart showed an independent and adventurous personality.

The family faced financial difficulties due to his father’s alcoholism, and Earhart attended high school in Chicago, graduating in 1916. Then, thanks to her mother’s inheritance, she attended the Ogontz School in Pennsylvania but left school to work as a volunteer nurse for World War I soldiers in Toronto.

Amelia Earhart was not long before she went missing.

In 1920, Earhart made his first flight in an airplane and decided to learn to fly. In 1921, she bought her first airplane – a Kinner Airster – and two years later, she officially received her pilot’s license. She both works as a social worker and continues to pursue her passion for aviation.

In 1928, Earhart became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic, albeit only as a passenger. After the trip, she became an international star, writing books and giving presentations throughout the United States.

In 1931, she married publisher George Palmer Putnam but kept her surname during her flying career. That same year, she set an autogiro flight record at 5,613 meters.

In 1932, Earhart flew across the Atlantic Ocean on her own, becoming the first woman to do so. After the flight, she published The Fun of It and went on to set a series of other records, including a solo flight from Hawaii to California (1935) and from Los Angeles to Mexico City.