Amelia Earhart 75th Anniversary Brings About New Search

Today marks the 75th anniversary of Amelia Earhart’s disappearance and in celebration of her infamous voyage the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) have set out once again to search for Earhart’s plane known as the Electra.

The group is traveling to the Pacific Ocean to search for the aircraft at Nikumaroro, an island where some researchers believe Amelia set down her aircraft and later died after becoming stranded.

Amelia lost contact on July 2, 1937 while attempting to become the first woman pilot to fly all the way around the world, she had previously become the first female to fly across the Atlantic Ocean. Amelia’s twin-engine Lockheed Electra aircraft was never found, neither was Amelia or her navigator Fred Noonan.

TIGHAR is traveling from Honolulu to Nikumaroro on Monday to commence its search with the help of package delivery service FedEx. The group will use new advanced technology to search underwater off the west coast of the island where they hope to find Earhart’s wreckage.

According to TIGHAR executive director Ric Gillespie:

“That’s what should be down there based on the research and clues we have. We think it should be down there, whether it thinks so is another question.”

Many different theories have surfaced regarding the famous pilots disappearance, many researchers believed she crashed at sea while others believe she was captured by the Japanese. In another theory several people believe Earnhart returned to the United States and took the name Irene Bolham, a theory revealed in the 1970 book, “Amelia Earhart Lives” by Joe Klaas.