Amelia Earhart was born on July 24, 1897, in Kansas. She was a nurse’s aide in World War I, where “she developed a strong admiration for aviators, spending much of her free time watching the Royal Flying Corps practicing at the airfield nearby” (“Amelia Earhart"). In 1920, she went on a ten minute plane ride in Long Beach and decided she wanted to learn how to fly (“Amelia Earhart"). She wanted to be “the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic” (Grossman). Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan, her flying partner, set out on June 1, 1937, to accomplish that goal. By June 29, approximately 22,000 miles of their trip had been completed when they stopped in New Guinea for repairs (“Amelia Earhart"). They were supposed to land on Howland Island to …show more content…
The “crash-and-sink theory” (Hanes) is the most believed and reasonable theory to researchers and all of her fans (“5 Theories”). “According to the so-called ‘crash-and-sink’ theory, the plane eventually ran out of gas and plunged into the ocean, killing both Earhart and Noonan. It then sank, leaving no sign of their whereabouts” (Hanes). When Earhart and Noonan went missing, many searches, mainly by The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, came up with no evidence of anything besides them running out of fuel and crashing. “An intensive search of the vicinity by the Coast Guard and U.S. Navy found no physical evidence of the fliers or their plane” (“Amelia Earhart Disappears.”). This is what lead the public to believe that Earhart crashed into the ocean, and why people wanted to find out more information to know if this is actually what happened. There is also another very crazy theory built off of this one. Some people seem to think that Earhart did crash in the Pacific, but instead of dying she swam all the way to Gardner Island. Since bones were found on the island, these people think that coconut crabs ate her skin after she died, or they ate her alive because she was so weak (Staggs). There is really no evidence to prove that she was eaten alive by coconut crabs, but some people believe that this is what really …show more content…
There was evidence found by The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery who said that Earhart made over 100 transmissions on her radio trying to find help after she went missing (Bowerman). People who heard those transmissions verified that it was her voice calling for help ("What Happened”), and Earhart’s mother and the U.S Navy both believed that she had somehow managed to end up on this island (“5 Theories”). More evidence that showed she landed the plane was a piece of aluminum which was found in 1991 off the coast of Gardner Island (“Amelia Earhart Plane”).
The rivets found on the piece of metal had a unique pattern that matched Earhart’s plane, and the piece of metal itself was 23” long and 19” wide (Pruitt). Compared to a picture of the plane and a piece of material that could have been used to repair her plane if needed, the layout matched closely to her Lockheed Electra