Featured Image Credit: Universal History Archive / Contributor / Getty
There are many unsolved mysteries in the world, like what happened to the Mary Celeste, where did D.B. Cooper go, and why did the Roanoke colony vanish?
Among them is the fate of Amelia Earhart. The famed aviation pioneer vanished alongside navigator Fred Noonan in 1937, when she attempted as become the first female pilot to circumnavigate the world.
The world has been fascinated with the case of Amelia Earhart and her disappearance near Howland Island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean for the past 88 years, but now, there's been a seemingly massive breakthrough. Neither the bodies of Earhart and Noonan or her plane (a Lockheed Model 10-E Electra called 'The Flying Laboratory’) have every been found, although most modern accounts suggest she ran out of fuel near Howland Island and crashed into the ocean. It's thought that Earhart and Noonan died during or shortly after the crash, with the wreckage potentially lying up to 18,000 feet down.
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The exact circumstances surrounding her ill-fated flight will never be known, but in an unusual twist, some seem to think her disappearance is tied to the Bermuda Triangle.
Equally as mysterious, this patch of the North Atlantic connects Florida, Bermuda, and Puerto Rico, is known as the 'Devil's Triangle', and has been linked to the disappearance of at least 50 ships and 20 airplanes.
As you might've noticed, Howland Island is in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, whereas the Bermuda Triangle is nowhere near.
There's no factual evidence that connects Earhart to the Bermuda Triangle, but over the years, the many strange aviation stories have been lumped together with that terrifying triangle.
It's thought that the rough weather in the Bermuda Triangle or possible interference from an underwater volcano could lead vessels to this watery grave, whereas Earhart is thought to have run out of fuel during her descent to Howland Island.
This image shows Amelia Earhart preparing for her flight in 1937. This journey would be her very last as she, along with navigator Fred Noonan, vanished near New Guinea. Despite extensive search efforts, Earhart or Noonan was never found. pic.twitter.com/IjQjy7anVd
— Morbid Knowledge (@Morbidful) December 19, 2023
A $4 million search was soon underway, which was the most expensive search in US history at the time.
There were wild theories that she was captured by Japanese forces and executed as a spy, while others suggest she survived on the nearby Gardner Island but was eventually eaten by giant coconut crabs.
The strangest is that she survived, remarried, and changed her name to Irene Craigmile Bolam.
This was put forward by a 1970 book called Amelia Earhart Lives, and after Bolam requested $1.2 million ($12 million in 2024) in damages, it was withdrawn from sale for a number of years.
Either way, Earhart was declared legally dead in 1939 and her disappearance has baffled conspiracy theorists and scientists alike for decades.
With researchers thinking they've found the wreckage of Earhart's plane on the islands of Nikumaroro in Kiribati, we could be one step closer to finally closing the book on what happened to Amelia Earhart.
