Declassified Amelia Earhart files reveal 'telepath' from 1937 who claims she knows what happened to missing pilot
Declassified Amelia Earhart files reveal a 'telepath' from 1937 who claims she knows what happened to the missing pilot.
The lack of closure has made Amelia Earhart's story one of the 20th century's most compelling unsolved cases.
Now, thousands of previously classified government documents have been made public, revealing new theories about her disappearance.
Last Friday, the US National Archives quietly released 4,624 pages of documents that had been sitting in government files for the better part of a century.
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The release came on the heels of a directive from President Donald Trump ordering intelligence agencies to declassify and make public everything the government holds on the famous aviator.
National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard announced the document dump, which consists of military logs, official correspondence, public letters, newspaper clippings and various other materials from the era.
Amelia Earhart was already a household name after she'd become the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. However, disaster struck during her attempt to fly around the world.
On 2 July 1937, she and her navigator Fred Noonan climbed into her twin-engine Lockheed Electra airplane in Papua New Guinea. Their destination was Howland Island, a tiny dot of land sitting in the middle of nowhere, roughly 2,500 miles (4,000 km) away across open ocean.
Hours after takeoff, Earhart reported that she was running low on fuel and that was the last message anyone ever heard from her.
Despite extensive naval searches, the 39-year-old aviator and her navigator simply vanished 88 years ago in the Pacific without leaving a trace. The timing of releasing the documents though, right as he was facing mounting criticism for withholding files related to the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The Earhart files hit the National Archives website just two days after a congressional committee released thousands of Epstein-related documents that raised uncomfortable questions about Trump's past relationship with the convicted criminal.
Beyond the official military reports detailing search efforts by the US Navy and Coast Guard, the collection includes correspondence from members of the public who were convinced they knew Earhart's fate.
Among the strangest items is a letter from a woman who claimed she'd solved the mystery through mental telepathy. According to her psychic visions, Earhart was still alive somewhere although the letter provides no details about where she was.
Other speculations were from a man insisting she was buried in Spain and a series of government telegrams and memos excusing rumours that Earhart had been taken captive by Japanese forces and executed.
The National Archives has announced that additional Earhart-related records are currently being digitised and will be posted progressively over the coming months.