USCGC Itasca radio log
Document
The timed record of Earhart’s voice, including the 157–337 line. It is the central primary source for the last hour.
Darker cells mean a higher score for this topic on that metric.
Notoriety94
Mystery92
Scale36
Evidence40
Legal impact30
Culture95
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Last reviewed Sources & creditsMedia creditsMethodology
Quick answers
When did Amelia Earhart disappear?
On 2 July 1937, during the Lae, New Guinea, to Howland Island leg of an eastbound around-the-world attempt in Lockheed Electra NR16020, with navigator Fred Noonan.
What was the last radio message?
Itasca logged Earhart at about 08:43 Howland time saying she was on the line 157–337 and running on line. She reported they were flying up and down that line and could not see the island. Two-way contact was poor.
Who was Fred Noonan?
A professional navigator, formerly of Pan American’s Pacific routes, hired for the world flight after the March 1937 Hawaii crash. He was in the Electra on 2 July. He has not been found.
What is the official explanation?
Fuel exhaustion and a ditching in the sea near Howland Island after the island was missed. That is the Navy and Coast Guard working conclusion from 1937. It has not been confirmed by a located wreck.
What is the Nikumaroro theory?
A private research argument, associated with TIGHAR, that the Electra landed on Gardner Island (Nikumaroro) on the same sun line. Fragments and a lost 1940 bone find have been debated. No government has certified the island as the crash site.
Was Earhart captured by Japanese forces?
No document trail accepted by mainstream historians shows capture or imprisonment. The last radio minutes place the aircraft on a line through Howland, not in the Marshalls. The story persists in popular English; it is not the official file.
Evidence quality is strong for a missed island and a last radio call, and weak for a wreck site.
What survives is good enough to write the morning of 2 July and not good enough to close the map.
Exhibits
Navy and Coast Guard search reports
Archive
Ship and aircraft logs from July 1937. They document effort and the absence of confirmed wreckage.
Electra equipment and frequency notes
Technical
What radio gear NR16020 carried, and why two-way contact with Itasca failed. Communications, not conspiracy, sit in this paper.
1940 Gardner Island bones
Physical
A colonial find later lost. Surviving measurements have been re-analysed for sex and stature without a chain that can identify Earhart.
TIGHAR island exhibits
Forensic
Aluminium and camp objects offered as Electra-related. Debated in the specialist press; not certified by the United States Navy.
1939 legal-death file
Document
The California proceeding that closed the estate. It is a civil ending, not a wreck report.
How strong is the record?
Location of the wreck18
Howland ditching remains the official default; no certified airframe.
Last-hour radio record78
Itasca’s log is detailed; Earhart’s ability to hear the cutter was not.
Nikumaroro identification28
A developed private case without official acceptance.
Capture-story documentation8
Late testimony, no accepted contemporary paper.
The strongest evidence is a cutter’s log. The weakest is any claim that names a prison or a closed wreck.
Public-record encyclopedia. Not legal advice. Not a how-to. Graphic detail is withheld. Wars belong in a separate atlas.