Amelia Earhart Vanishes

Is there a mystery bigger than that of Amelia Earhart?

The accomplished pilot was a national celebrity—and well known worldwide. Despite her skills and the fact that she was traveling with an experienced navigator, Fred Noonan, the two of them simply vanished on this date in 1937.

The Lockheed aircraft they were traveling in was designed to float, but apparently didn’t if it performed what the airlines euphemistically refer to today as a “water landing”—and it’s known that Amelia was low on fuel (she had radioed that fact shortly before they went down). It is likely that the plane crashed-landed, but where? Why has no trace of the aircraft ever been found?

While searching for Howland Island in the Pacific, somehow they got lost—and in spite of the massive efforts to find this American heroine and her navigator, nothing has turned up in over 70 years. Documents, yes. Eyewitness accounts also. Conspiracy theories abound and the fascination with Earhart’s disappearance has not diminished with the passage of time.

Indeed, it has grown stronger—and sometimes bizarre. Was she on a secret spy mission for the United States? Was she captured by the Japanese and taken prisoner? Did her plane crash land and somehow the both of them lived for years on an atoll in the South Pacific?

Until there is definitive proof of what exactly DID happen, one cannot rule out all of the other scenarios.

Check out this 3 part show on Amelia from the old popular TV program “In Search Of….” Starring Leonard Nimoy (“Mr. Spock”!) This show was usually rife with UFO sightings, wild theories and crazy people. That’s part of what made it entertaining. This episode was no different:

Part 1



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsLDA-ItfHA


Part 2



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJw_MdmElXE&feature=related


Part 3



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0UWjtQtHds&feature=related


Each story in the above program sounds plausible until you hear the NEXT one! I do believe that someday we will know definitively exactly what happened. Either classified documents will be released or, like the discovery of the Titanic, new technology will find the remains of her plane in the Pacific.

However it turns out, there’s no question that Amelia Earhart lived life on her terms and not those of a husband or anyone else—a trait that is still a rarity today—and virtually unheard of for a woman during her time. That, in my mind, is a bigger accomplishment than any aviation feat she achieved.

If you’d like my blog in your weekday box, just let me know! Tim.moore@citcomm.com