The Office of the Director of National Intelligence announced Friday it released the first batch of declassified government records related to the famous, late pilot Amelia Earhart. The federal government said it will publish more of these records on a rolling basis.
“Delivering on President [Donald] Trump’s promise, the release of the Amelia Earhart files will shine light on the disappearance of a beloved American aviator who has been at the center of public inquisition for decades,” Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said in a statement.
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Earhart, the first woman to fly the Atlantic Ocean and first person to fly from Hawaii to mainland North America, and her navigator, Fred Noonan, were reported missing on July 2, 1937 near Howland Island in the Pacific Ocean. The two were trying to fly around the world, but according to History.com, “lost their bearings” as they went from Lae, New Guinea to Howland Island.
The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Itasca, which was in contact with Earhart as she and Noonan approached Howland Island, received messages that they were running low on fuel.
Document release
Trump, in September, ordered the release of documents surrounding the disappearance, saying on Truth Social at the time that he had “been asked by many people about the life and times of Amelia Earhart.”
Included in the just-released 4,624 pages of documents are newly declassified files from the National Security Agency, log books of the military vessels that searched for Earhart, letters, newspaper clippings, maps, weather information, memos and more.
In one of the letters, one woman claimed to have found through telepathy that Earhart was still alive, while in another, a man said she was buried in Spain.
Documents showed that a dispatcher talked about how personnel “constantly” communicated with Earhart before her disappearance.
“Most have never seen her some heard her voice,” the message, dated July 5, 1937, said. “…Those who did have great admiration for courage when she called in slow measured words half hour field left no landfall stop not until last message did voice show emotion stop. Unverified here Noonan with Amelia.”
Flares were spotted near Howland Island that were thought to possibly be Earhart, but these were actually meteors, according to the documents.
Expeditions to find Earhart
Millions of dollars were spent over the last 88 years to attempt to find Earhart, according to the New York Post. An expedition led by South Carolina deep-sea explorer Tony Romeo and the Deep Sea Vision team went out to do so in 2023. Those on the exploration were able to capture a sonar image of an aircraft-shaped object that was thought to be Earhart’s plane. However, this was later found to be a rock formation.
Purdue University and its research foundation are set to join an expedition by the Archaeological Legacy Institute to locate Earhart’s lost aircraft in a lagoon of Nikumaroro Island. Researchers think a visual anomaly in the Lagoon called the “Taraia Object” could be wreckage from that aircraft.
While the expedition was set to begin on Nov. 4, it was later postponed to 2026 as the team waits for additional clearance from the Kiribati government and for the South Pacific cyclone season to end.
