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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.
The story that can be told from logs is a sponsored world flight, a missed island and a cutter that heard a voice.
The story English culture prefers is a secret prison or a desert-island camp. This page keeps the Itasca minutes.
Beats
- A second departure
After the March 1937 Luke Field crash, the Electra was rebuilt and the route reversed. Purdue money and Putnam’s publicity made the flight a public event before it reached the Pacific.
- Lae to Howland
The longest overwater shot of the remaining route aimed at a point island. Itasca was the radio and fuel plan.
- The 157–337 transmission
Earhart reported a sun line and a running search. Howland’s airstrip was never seen from the air that morning.
- A fleet search
Navy and Coast Guard ships and aircraft covered a wide box. They found no confirmed Electra wreckage.
- Legal death, open wreck
The 1939 court date closed the estate. Private theories and island digs have not closed the map.
The story that remains honest is unsolved. The last clear object is a radio log, not a wreck.
Public-record encyclopedia. Not legal advice. Not a how-to. Graphic detail is withheld. Wars belong in a separate atlas.