It's been 88 years since Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan disappeared over the South Pacific. But until now the records of the search have remained classified.
In September, President Donald Trump ordered the details of the 1937 disappearance declassified, making them available from the National Archives. The files consist of photostats and copies of photostats of records relating to plans for the around-the-world flight, including a letter written by Earhart to President Franklin Roosevelt, where she outlines her proposed route and notes she will need to refuel over the Pacific.
In the letter dated November 10, 1936, Earhart describes the airplane she has obtained through Purdue University. The purpose of the letter was to ask the president to use his influence to gain the cooperation of the U.S. Navy during her flight.
In the days that followed, there were reports of ham radio operators on the West Coast and as far inland as Montana picking up radio transmissions allegedly from the Lockheed Electra. Some were more credible than others—one received by the HMS Achilles 225 miles north-northwest of Howland was reported as “Putnam __ fly kite,” which was encouraging because part of the safety equipment aboard the Lockheed was a bright orange box kit with a special antenna to boost radio signals.
The radio calls were scrutinized and if found credible, search crews were sent to the area. The Lockheed company was skeptical of the reports that stated the airplane was in the water, as although the aircraft was designed to float with empty fuel tanks, provided they were not compromised, the aircraft’s normal radio power supply would not work if the airplane was in the water.
Final Radio Contact
Earhart and Noonan were using celestial navigation for the open water crossing, and among the theories put forth over the decades was that Noonan was unable to get a sighting of the sun as it rose that morning, or the computations were in error, either of which would put the aircraft off course. Experts note that, on the best of days, finding Howland Island, which is an atoll, is a navigational challenge.
Radio navigation and communication as we know it now was in its infancy. At the time, aircraft radios used tubes and were large and heavy. The Electra was equipped with a Western Electric Model 13C radio transmitter and a Bendix aircraft receiver. The Electra was identified as KHAQQ with a power of 50 watts, capable of both voice and Morse code transmissions on several frequencies: 500, 3105, and 6210 KHz. The aircraft was also equipped with a Bendix direction-finding radio.
According to historians, the Lockheed was delivered with a second antenna for 500 KHz. This second antenna was a trailing-wire type that was reeled out of the belly of the aircraft to boost reception. It had a full length of 250 feet and, combined with the mechanism for its deployment, weighed several hundred pounds. It was allegedly left behind on the last leg of the flight to save weight.
Last Contact
Earhart was last heard from on the morning of July 2, 1937. According to the reports, that morning the Itasca was moored next to Howland Island and laying down heavy smoke.
Based on the information from the radio transmissions, it was presumed that the aircraft was in the clouds for the last leg of the flight, as they headed toward Howland Island, where they expected to land and refuel, as a runway had been built for this purpose and barrels of fuel were on standby.
The Itasca radio log shows the following (all in Howland Island time):
0614: Two hundred miles out and no landfall.
0646: Approximately 100 miles from Itasca—position doubtful.
0742: 30 minutes gas remaining. No landfall. Position doubtful.
0758: Circling trying to pick up island.
0843: Upon a position line 157-337 degrees.
0855 Heading north and south.
The 0855 report was the last "authentic"communication received.
In the days that followed, there were reports of ham radio operators on the West Coast and as far inland as Montana picking up radio transmissions allegedly from the Lockheed Electra. Some were more credible than others—one received by the HMS Achilles 225 miles north-northwest of Howland was reported as “Putnam __ fly kite,” which was encouraging because part of the safety equipment aboard the Lockheed was a bright orange box kit with a special antenna to boost radio signals.
The radio calls were scrutinized and if found credible, search crews were sent to the area. The Lockheed company was skeptical of the reports that stated the airplane was in the water, as although the aircraft was designed to float with empty fuel tanks, provided they were not compromised, the aircraft’s normal radio power supply would not work if the airplane was in the water.
In the search reports, there is much speculation about how the crew managed their fuel and if they had encountered a headwind that caught them by surprise. There are several mentions of “what if” they used a particular power setting over another to increase the aircraft’s endurance from 24 hours to 20.
The search spanned 16 days, with sea-going vessels and aircraft searching thousands of miles of open water and atolls and small islands, looking for any sign of the aircraft or Earhart and Noonan. The search crews carefully flew grid patterns to the west-northwest of Howland Island, following the drifting currents.
The Lockheed was equipped with a rubber life raft, and had Earhart and Noonan had survived the ditching, it was hoped they would have made it into the raft. However, no wreckage or even an oil slick was spotted.
One report describes how the group attached to the USS Lexington “covered an area of approximately 300 square miles to the west and northwest of Howland, which concluded all probable positions of the plane or passengers if afloat; as an additional but unlikely possibility, the Gilbert Islands were searched. It is regrettably unreasonable to conclude [anything] other than the unfortunate fliers were not on water upon conclusion of the search.”
More details can be found in Flying Magazine here.