Amelia Mary Earhart was a pioneering aviator. She was the first woman to fly solo across the mighty Atlantic in 1932 — just 12 years after her country had permitted women to vote. She was a winner of the Distinguished Flying Cross, wrote bestsellers, set nine other records and in 1937, she vanished, along with her plane.
Earhart was attempting to circumnavigate the world, fly roughly a distance of 40,000 kilometres, along the Equator. She, along with second navigator Fred Noonan, were on their second attempt when the world lost contact with the Lockheed Model 10 Electra.
Seventy-nine years later, the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, claim they have enough evidence to prove Earhart had survived a landing and that she had spent her last days as a castaway on Gardner Island despite making several radio distress calls — 47 of those messages were heard by radio operators worldwide. Ric Gillespie, from TIGHAR provided DC with the details.
First, the evidence. Gillespie’s conclusion relies on the discovery of a piece of aircraft skin that appears to be from Earhart’s aircraft. The shard of plexiglas matches the specification for a window on the plane and various artefacts found at the campsite are consistent with an American woman of the 1930s.
He also sheds light on the exact nature of the distress calls. “In some cases, it was only a ‘carrier wave’ (background signal) indicating that someone was transmitting on her frequency. Some people recognised her voice but could not make out what she was saying. And in other cases, clear voice messages were heard in which she even identified herself. In several cases, radio direction bearings were taken that crossed near Gardner Island,” he says.
TIGHAR’s research shows Noonan and Earhart were hurt in the landing but had enough fuel (to power the plane’s radio) and strength (to make the radio calls).
“The US Navy sent a ship to the Phoenix Group of islands, including Gardner Island. It took a week to get there and by then, the signals had stopped because the plane had been washed off the reef into the ocean. No aircraft was seen so they concluded that the signals must have been bogus,” adds Gilespie.
He also explains why Earhart’s final days would not have made for a “pretty picture”.
“There was fashioning of a spear by breaking apart a pocket knife (we have the knife), cooking and boiling water at campfires (we have the bottles and the campfire), trying to fend off the giant crabs. She was expending more calories gathering food than what was in the food she could gather. Eventually, she would’ve been unable to move at which point, crabs may have literally eaten her alive.
“Earhart was passionate about proving that women could do what men can do. But she was not a good pilot. She had 11 accidents before the final one and she was shockingly negligent about learning the skills she needed to make flight to Howland Island. She didn’t know how to use her radio navigation equipment and it cost her, her life.”
