What happened to Amelia Earhart. Women's history (photos, videos, documents)

Investigators have established the authenticity of the wreckage of the aircraft, which with a high degree of probability may belong to the missing Lockheed Model 10 "Electra". As it became known, the results of the chemical analysis of the metal can be proof that Earhart landed in the Marshall Islands.

• According to Dick Spink, Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan crash-landed on Mili Atoll.
• A schoolteacher has spent $50,000 (£32,700) trying to prove his hypothesis is correct.
• During a recent expedition, two objects were discovered indicating the presence of some kind of aircraft there, presumably an Earhart aircraft.
• These items are: an aluminum flap of the hatch from the auxiliary power unit and a cover that covered the wheel drum on one of the landing gear of the aircraft.
• Currently, specialists from the American metallurgical company Alcoa, whose factories produced duralumin for Lockheed, are conducting a chemical analysis of the fragments found, as well as other parts of its aircraft, which were dismantled from it during repairs in 1937. Later, the results of the analysis will be compared with each other in order to confirm or refute this theory.

The mysterious disappearance of the famous writer and aviation pioneer continues to haunt the minds of many historians and researchers around the world. Some say she ran out of fuel somewhere over the western Pacific. At the same time, others suggest that she landed on the atoll, which is now better known as Nikumaroro in the Phoenix archipelago, and then the crew died as a result of starvation and dehydration. Exploration will begin next month on this piece of land in the midst of an endless ocean, as part of a project that has a budget of almost $500,000 (£327,000).

However, the school teacher has her own version of what happened, which roughly sounds like this: her plane crashed in the Marshall Islands, on an atoll called Mili. According to Dick Spink, he will soon be able to obtain and provide evidence to the general public for this theory. Like all other hypotheses, Dick's assumption is based on the testimony of aboriginal islanders, whose ancestors could become unwitting witnesses of what happened. Over the years of searching, he spent about $50,000 to prove it to everyone. that he is correct in his guesses.

Mili Atoll on Google Earth

"The world needs to know the truth," the 53-year-old "search engine" said in an interview with National Geographic magazine. “At the Marshals, I was able to get testimonies from many people that their ancestors saw her plane.”Let me remind you that Earhart was the first woman to make a transatlantic flight, but disappeared without a trace in 1937, along with navigator Frederic Numan, while trying to fly around the earth on a twin-engine Lockheed "Electra".

At the same time, representatives of the non-profit organization International Group for the search for historical aircraft (Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR)), which is engaged in the search for "disappeared sides", say that the theory of the school teacher is untenable and, most likely, Earhart landed on Nikumaroro Atoll , near Howland Island. But after listening to several stories in the Marshall Islands about what looked like Lockheed Electra, Dick is convinced that she was there.

His own investigation is based on oral information obtained by interviewing several dozen natives, whose ancestors, probably, could become eyewitnesses of some specific events. According to them, one of the locals saw some kind of shiny plane landing on the island at that time.

However, not oral evidence alone. Through collaboration with the aerospace giant Parker Aerospace, Dick received a new impetus in his work. This was greatly facilitated by the technological backlog of the company in the field of production of spectral analyzers and control systems. The fact is that earlier this year, the company's specialists, together with a history teacher, went to Mili Atoll. Using their instruments, they found a small aluminum cover and part of the landing gear mechanism, presumably from Amelia Earhart's aircraft.

A red cap covering the wheel drum from the outside on the left landing gear of the Lockheed L-10E "Electra" model aircraft.

"We'll bring in more sophisticated equipment to find other parts of the aircraft," said John Jeffery, director of US business development at Parker Aerospace. By the way, at the moment, it is this company that sponsors the Dick Spink search project.

As written in newspaper The Skagit Valley Herald, aircraft mechanic Jim Hayton recognized in the found fragment an anti-dust plug that covers the wheel drum from the outside on the left landing gear of Lockheed L-10E "Electra" aircraft, which were equipped with Goodyear Air Wheel tires. “How many Lockheed L-10Es could have crash-landed on this tiny atoll? That's right, just one,” Hayton says.

According to National Geographic, at present, specialists from the metallurgical company Alcoa, at whose factories they produced duralumin for Lockheed, are conducting a chemical analysis of the found aluminum fragments. Then they will compare the results of their material science analysis with data on aircraft parts that were dismantled from Amelia's "bird" during its repair after the accident in 1937. Alcoa promises that the data will be available soon. If a match is found as a result of this, then it may be possible to solve the mystery of what happened to Amelia Earhart and Fred Nulan.

During their ill-fated flight, they experienced problems with radio communication, which made it impossible for them to fully communicate with controllers on the ground. Probably, the radio antenna was damaged during one of the takeoffs or landings. Most likely for this reason, the US Coast Guard was unable to contact her 19 hours after their last takeoff.

By the beginning of July, the crew had flown more than 22,000 miles, successfully covering 80% of the route - across the Atlantic, equatorial Africa, Arabia, India and South East Asia. Some of the 28 stages of the flight have been officially registered as world records. The flight schedule was very tight, in fact, leaving no time for a good rest. On July 2, 1937, Amelia and Fred Noonan took off from Lae, a small town on the coast of New Guinea, and headed for small island Howland, located in the central part of the Pacific Ocean. There it was supposed to refuel before the next flight - to Honolulu. But these plans were not destined to come true.

Shortly before a possible crash, fragmentary radio messages were heard on the ground, which reported that they did not see the airfield. By the way, this stage of the flight was the longest and most dangerous - to be found after almost 18 hours of flight in pacific ocean an island that only rises slightly above the water was a huge challenge for navigational technology in the 1930s. By order of President Roosevelt, an airstrip was built on Howland, specifically for Earhart's flight. Here the plane was expected by officials and representatives of the press, and off the coast was the Coast Guard patrol ship Itasca, which periodically maintained radio contact with the aircraft, served as a radio beacon and let out a smoke signal as a visual reference.

An aluminum fragment discovered by Dick Spink during a site survey on Mili Atoll.

According to the report of the ship's commander, the connection was unstable, the plane was heard well from the ship, but Earhart did not respond to their questions. She said that the plane was in their area, they did not see the island, there was little gasoline, and she was unable to locate the radio signal of the ship.

DF from the ship also did not bring success, since Earhart appeared on the air for a very a short time. The last radiogram received from her was: "We are on line 157 - 337 ... I repeat ... I repeat ... we are moving along the line." Judging by the level of the signal, the plane should have appeared over Howland any minute, but it never appeared; no new radio broadcasts followed.

Judging by last post, the navigator determined by means of celestial navigation that they were on a "line of position" 157 - 337 degrees (green line on the map on the left) passing through the island, but, not knowing their position in latitude, they flew along this line, trying to find the island.

The search operation began almost immediately after it became clear that, according to calculations, the Lockheed Electra had run out of fuel. First of all, the search was complicated by the size of the territory in which they were carried out. It was the largest and most expensive such operation in the history of the American Navy. Many ships, including the world's largest aircraft carrier Lexington and the battleship Colorado, left their bases in California and the Hawaiian Islands and urgently headed for the Central Pacific.

Ships and 66 aircraft surveyed 220,000 square miles of water surface within 2 weeks; many small uninhabited islands and reefs have been checked, but all efforts have been fruitless. After 14 days, the leadership of the fleet announced that there was no more hope: apparently, Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan, having crashed, died in the ocean. Thus, despite an unprecedented search, Earhart was never found. On January 5, 1939, she was declared dead, although unofficial searches continued much later.

In addition to the main one, conspiracy versions of her disappearance began to appear almost immediately in the press. For years, one of the most popular was that a female pilot was captured by the Japanese and tortured to death on suspicion of espionage.

And she started this business on a grand scale: to fly across the Atlantic not on a single-engine plane,
and on a three-engine, on such heavy machines over long distances, then they had not yet flown.
However, the ambitious plans of the newly-minted feminist made rich and high-ranking relatives clutch their heads.
However, I liked the idea. They began to look for another performer, who, in the event of sad circumstances, has nothing to lose.
The choice fell on Amelia Earhart, a modest social worker in Boston who
work time on his single-engine aircraft is not one thousand kilometers.
The fact that the girl had no experience in driving heavy machines did not particularly bother anyone.
When an intercontinental flight becomes a symbol of gender equality, such trifles are no longer up to the mark.
Amelia was declared the commander of the crew. She spent twenty hours in the air, in her own words, in the role of a bag of potatoes. The car was driven by men.
However, the fame received in advance spurred the pilot.
In the future, Amelia Earhart will make many flights alone, and across the North Atlantic too,
until one day during a round-the-world flight it disappears from the radio forever.
"She was a pilot from birth - with a natural and unmistakable sense of the aircraft."
(General Wade).

"The entire space of the world is left behind us, except for this frontier - the ocean ..." - these words were in last letter famous pilot Amelia Earhart to her husband.

The first round-the-world flight by a woman was coming to an end. On July 4, 1937, the Lockheed Electra aircraft, piloted by Earhart and navigator Fred Hoonan, was supposed to make the last landing of this flight in Oakland (USA).

Two days earlier, on July 2, A.E. (as her friends called her) and her navigator looked hopefully into the sky over the airfield on the small Pacific island of Lee. The sky, clear for the first time in the past week, promised them a speedy return home.

Howland Island is ahead, 4730 km to it. Behind Florida - Brazil - Africa - India. Everything superfluous has been sacrificed for fuel reserves. 3028 liters of gasoline, 265 liters of oil, a minimum of food and water, a rubber boat, a pistol, parachutes and a rocket launcher.

As they said later, the onboard chronometer bothered Hunan. The chronometer lied, a little, but lied. What was needed was absolute precision. A one-degree miscalculation at that distance would take the aircraft 45 miles away from the target. The flight, like all flights of this kind, was very difficult and unusual, and this Lee-Howland segment was the longest. Finding an island a little more than half a kilometer wide and 3 kilometers long is a difficult task even for such an experienced navigator as Hunan.

July 2 at 10.00 "Lockheed-Electra" started, starting the penultimate, giant jump to the target.

Amelia Mary Earhart was born July 24, 1897 in Atchison, Kansas, the son of lawyer Edwin Earhart. Edwin's wife, Amy, was the daughter of a local judge. Amelia was the eldest child in the family; a second daughter, Muriel, was born two and a half years later.

FROM early years the Earhart sisters enjoyed an extraordinary freedom of choice for their time in choosing interests, friends, and entertainment. Amelia was an excellent rider since childhood, she swam, played tennis and shot from a 22-caliber rifle donated by her father. She learned to read at the age of four and from an early age absorbed a wide variety of literature, but her books about great discoveries and adventures were especially attracted. As a result, despite her belonging to the "weaker sex", among the children from neighboring streets, Amelia became a recognized leader and ringleader. Her grades in school were almost always excellent, especially in natural sciences, history and geography. At the age of 10, Amelia saw an airplane for the first time, but at that moment she did not have much interest in it. She later described it as "a piece of rusty wire and wood, not at all interesting."
On Christmas Day 1917, having come to Toronto to visit younger sister, Amelia saw on the street seriously wounded soldiers who arrived from the fronts of the First World War. The impression was so strong that instead of returning to school, she enrolled in an accelerated nursing course and went to work in a military hospital. By the end of the war, the accumulated experience persuaded her to devote her life to medicine. However, there was a military airfield not far from the hospital, and after visiting several air shows, Amelia became interested in aviation, which subsequently changed her fate.

The Lockheed Vega 5b aircraft that Amelia Earhart is said to have flown

Seven hours later, the Coast Guard cutter Itasca, which was waiting for the plane at Howland, received a radio confirmation from San Francisco that Earhart's plane had taken off from Lee. The commander of the Itasca went on the air: "Earhart, we listen to you every 15th and 45th minutes of the hour. We transmit weather and heading every half hour and hour."

At 01:12 the boat's radio operator reported back to San Francisco that they still hadn't received anything from Earhart, and continued to relay the weather and heading. Meanwhile, the whole world was reading newspapers that described in great detail the biography of the great pilot Amelia Earhart. She was born on July 24, 1897 in the family of a lawyer. Her love for airplanes came to her during the First World War. A.E. was a nurse in a hospital near the airfield. The charm of the small, still clumsy aircraft of those times was too strong. She was able to understand the spirit of the courageous profession of a pilot. Many young people in those years raved about aviation, Amelia decided to learn how to fly.

Shortly before the round-the-world flight, Earhart wrote that for a long time she had two of her biggest desires: to be the first woman in a transatlantic flight (at least as a passenger) and the first woman pilot to cross the Atlantic. Both of her wishes came true. In June 1928, she flew in a flying boat (sitting next to the pilot!) from the USA to England. Four years later, on May 20, 1932, she, already alone, repeated the same route and landed in Londonderry 13 and a half hours later. A.E. was, obviously, a record holder by vocation. She made non-stop flights from Mexico City to New York and from California to the Hawaiian Islands, which at that time was a very difficult task. She was the first to reach 19,000 feet. In short, she became the most famous female pilot in the world. If Amelia Earhart said that the Laks aviation fire extinguisher system is the most reliable, then, firstly, it was true, and secondly, the best advertising it just couldn't be...

So, the night of 2 to 3 July 1937. 2 hours 45 minutes. Amelia Earhart's voice broke the silence for the first time in twelve hours: "Cloudy... The weather is bad... Headwind."

"Itasca" asked A.E. switch to Morse key. Not a sound in reply. 3.45. Earhart's voice is in the headphones: "I'm calling Itasca, I'm calling Itasca, listen to me in an hour and a half ..."

This radiogram and all subsequent ones were not completely deciphered. 7.42. A very tired, interrupted voice of A.E .: "I'm calling Itasca. We are somewhere nearby, but we don't see you. Fuel is only for thirty minutes. We'll try to reach you by radio, 300 meters high."

After 16 minutes, "I'm calling Itasca, we're above you, but we can't see the weight..." Itasca gave a long series of radiograms. A little later: "Itasca", we hear you, but not enough to establish ... (direction? ..)". last minutes flight of the Lockheed Electra. The chances of the life of the crew were calculated as follows: 4730 km, 18 hours. from the moment of departure, the fuel remained for 30 minutes. a hundred miles from Howland...

8.45. Amelia Earhart is heard in last time, she shouts in a broken voice: "Our course is 157-337, I repeat ... I repeat ... It blows north ... south."

The first act of the tragedy ended, the second began.

The commander of the Itasca expected that, perhaps, empty fuel tanks would keep the Lockheed Electra afloat for about an hour. A seaplane was called. Newspapers published testimonies of radio operators and radio amateurs who heard the voice of A.E. last.

By July 7, US Navy ships and aircraft had surveyed 100,000 square miles of ocean. Despite the participation of the aircraft carrier Lexington, neither pilots nor even traces of the disaster were found.

This event shocked the world, which followed for a month every movement of the heroic woman who was the first to travel around the world.

In a hopeless article, almost an obituary, in Flight magazine it is written: "It is impossible to imagine that pilots who crashed in the tropics are doomed to a slow death. It is better to hope that from the moment the Elektra's tanks were empty , the end came very quickly and their torment was not long."

This is all that was known about the life and death of Amelia Earhart in July 1937. A quarter of a century later, the fate of A.E. became interested again. Rumors and gossip surfaced that circulated around the death of the pilot back in 1937. Suspicions arose that Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan did not die in a plane crash. There was an assumption that the crew of the dead aircraft was performing a special reconnaissance mission. Having suffered an accident, they fell into the hands of the Japanese; those, apparently, were aware of the true goals of the round-the-world flight ...

In 1960, the search for a needle in a haystack began. In this case, the haystack was all of Micronesia. Plane wreckage found in Saipan harbor It was assumed that these were parts of a twin-engine and Lockheed-Electra, "on which Earhart flew. But these were pieces of skin Japanese fighter. In 1964, human skeletons were discovered there. Pilots? Anthropologists answered in the negative - the skeletons belong to the Micronesians. People were interviewed who knew something about the crash of the plane or thought they knew something. It was possible to establish approximately the following: from Lee, Earhart flew not along the route that the whole world knew about. Instead of flying straight to Howland, she headed north through the center of the Carolines. The task of A.E. was, apparently, like this - to clarify the location of Japanese airfields and naval supply bases in that part of the ocean, which has been causing concern to the United States since the 1930s. It was known that on the eve of an aggressive war, Japanese intelligence was intensively planting its agents and preparing landing sites for aircraft and ammunition depots on the Pacific islands. It also turned out that her plane was re-equipped, in particular, the engines, which developed speeds up to 315 km per hour, were replaced by more powerful ones.

Having completed the task, A.E. lay down on a course to Howland. Somewhere halfway to the target, the plane hit a tropical storm. (By the way, the captain of the Itasca claimed that the weather was excellent in the Howland area on July 4!) Having lost orientation, the Lockheed Electra went first to the east, then to the north. If you calculate the speed of the aircraft and fuel reserves, it turns out that the crash occurred somewhere off the coast of Mili Atoll on southeast Marshall Islands. From there, Earhart radioed "SOS". Some radio operators heard the signals of the dying aircraft around this time and in this region of the ocean.

It is also known that twelve days later a Japanese fishing schooner found some people. Local residents claim that the Japanese took two European men on a seaplane to about. Jaluit (Amelia was in overalls, maybe hence "two men?"). There is an assumption that at the end of his odyssey, A.E. and her navigator ended up on Saipan at the headquarters of the Japanese armed forces in the Pacific. Moreover, one journalist managed to find a resident of Saipan who claimed that he had seen a woman and a man among the Japanese whites and that the woman allegedly died of an illness, and the man was executed - beheaded - in August 1937, that is, about a month after departure. Two Marines who participated in the landing on Saipan were interviewed. They said that in 1944 they took part in the exhumation of corpses american soldiers and officers who died during the assault. Among the corpses were found a man and a woman in flight suits, but without insignia. The corpses of the pilots were immediately handed over to representatives of the Army Institute of Pathology. The sailors got the impression that the pathologists seemed to be waiting for these two corpses.

Here is what became known about the death of Amelia Earhart after the Second World War. Unfortunately, the only reliable thing in this system of facts and conjectures is the death of A.E. Officials in America and Japan keep this rather strange and tragic history silence. The only person who spoke at all was Admiral Chester Nimitz. In March 1965, he suggested (again an assumption!) that Earhart and her navigator may have made an emergency landing in the Marshall Islands and were captured by the Japanese ... The explorer's martyrology differs from all other martyrologies in one feature. Against the names of people who sacrificed themselves to open new paths, there is only one date - the year of birth ... The year of death is unknown, or instead of the day of death - a question mark. The data on A. Earhart in this list looks like this: Amelia Earhart 07/24/1897-07/3/1937 (?).

The mystery, the unusual nature of the death of these people always entails many attempts to somehow interpret, explain the circumstances of the tragedies.

When investigating the causes of the death of Amelia Earhart, one can abandon or almost abandon the usual, usually groundless, speculations and, using the available facts, recreate the whole picture. Naturally, it is impossible to assert that the reliability of our conclusions is one hundred percent. And still...

The penultimate stage of the round-the-world flight of Fr. Lee - oh Howland - 5400 km in a straight line. Assuming that Earhart flew in a roundabout way along the route of Fr. Lee - oh Truk (2250 km), about. Truk - Mili Atoll (2520 km), Mili Atoll - about. Howland (1380 km), then the total distance will be 6150 km.

Amelia Earhart at the Lockheed L-10 E Electra NR 16020 c. 1937

As you know, the plane stayed in the air for eighteen and a half hours, flying 4730 km. So, its average ground speed was 256 km/h.

In this case, following a direct, official route, the aircraft would land on the water 670 km from Howland Island, outside the 500 x 500 km square where aircraft from the aircraft carrier Lexington were looking for it.

When flying along the route about. Lee - oh Truk - Mili Atoll - about. Howland would have to land on Mile (2250 + 2520 = 4770 km). According to some reports, Earhart's aircraft was converted. Two engines, 420 hp each each, were replaced by motors of 550 hp. This made it possible to increase the speed by 9%, the load by 19% and the ceiling by 28%. The calculation of the flight range at the cruising speed of the converted aircraft 1.09 x 305 x 18.5 = 6150 km, although it coincides with the length of the circuit, but without taking into account ground speed (corrections for wind, etc.) is incorrect.

It is known that Amelia Earhart went on the air for the first time 12 hours after the start. How to explain such a long silence? In sports flight, it would seem that radio communication is absolutely necessary, because you can always find out the "place" of the aircraft and correct its flight. Therefore, it is easiest to assume that A.E. avoided radio communications, fearing to be found by the Japanese. During these 12 hours the plane flew 256 x 12 = 3072 km. On the route published in the newspapers, the radio transmission would begin over the ocean at the 160th meridian, in the second case, at Truk Island, that is, immediately after completing the task, which, apparently, should have been reported by a radiogram (most likely encrypted) .

Late departure - 10 a.m. can be explained by the need to be in the area of ​​the Caroline Islands before sunset, when, due to side lighting, unmasking shadows appear, which are necessary for aerial photography.

From Earhart's last radiogram, it follows that the plane was heading 157-337 to about. Howland is on the SSO (South-South-East), i.e. almost perpendicular to the official route.

So, the version that Amelia Earhart performed special task, looks like the truth. Further secrecy and official refusal to confirm or deny various rumors and testimonies of real and imaginary eyewitnesses also reinforce this assumption. There is no doubt that if the plane was found in the air over the Caroline Islands, the Japanese tried to "remove" unnecessary witnesses to their military preparations. One might think that Lockheed-Electra was spotted immediately after the first radio message, its course was set, and an order was given to intercept ... In any case, doing aerial reconnaissance, the famous pilot and her navigator, as civilians, were charged with espionage with all the ensuing consequences. Therefore, the question "Who knows the truth about Amelia Earhart?" the answer must be sought in the archives of the American and Japanese secret services.

Mysterious disappearances. Mysticism, secrets, clues Dmitrieva Natalia Yurievna

Amelia Earhart

Amelia Earhart

More than 75 years have passed since the inexplicable disappearance of the legendary American female pilot Amelia Earhart, and interest in this strange and confusing story does not fade away, just like interest in the very personality of this amazing woman.

When a woman becomes an aviator, that in itself is admirable. Amelia was not just one of the female pilots, but an outstanding aviator, with outstanding achievements and records, thanks to which her name entered the world history aviation. She was the first in the world to fly solo from Hawaii to California and across the Atlantic Ocean. Already at the very beginning of her aviation career, in 1922, Amelia set her first world altitude record, climbing 4300 m. Her name did not leave the front pages of newspapers.

It is not surprising that such a passion for the sky inspired Amelia to more and more new exploits. She could not stop there and was always eager to break other people's records. Therefore, when in 1932 the famous American pilot Willie Post flew around the globe, Amelia Earhart set out to also make an air trip around the world. She had been preparing for this flight for five years. And so, in 1937, she finally made up her mind. This flight was to be her last great record, after which Amelia intended to leave the big aviation and devote herself to training young pilots at the aviation department of Purdue University.

The course was supposed to lie along the equator - this is the longest round-the-world route. The whole world watched the flight with bated breath. Amelia Earhart and her navigator, experienced aviator Fred Noonan, flew a Lockheed Electra twin-engine airplane.

At the time, it was one of the most advanced aircraft. The flight was carried out with stops for refueling. It was almost completed - there were only three legs left: from Papua New Guinea to Howland Island in the Pacific Ocean, then from it to Honolulu and, finally, from there to Oakland (California), where the flight was supposed to end.

The flight to Howland Island turned out to be fatal. The US Marine Itasca, which was helping to direct their flight, received on July 2, 1937, the last radio message indicating the aircraft's coordinates. From it followed that "Lockheed Electra" is already very close to the destination. After that, the pilots made several attempts to establish voice communication with the commander of the vessel. But it could not be done. The antenna on board the aircraft may have failed. Howland Island was only a few miles away when communication with the airplane was lost and it was lost to sight. What prevented the crew of the airplane from landing could not be established.

Of course, all possible measures were immediately taken to search for the missing aircraft and its crew. But it was not possible to establish their whereabouts. After a meticulous two-week search, it was announced that the plane and those on board, Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan, were missing at sea. The official version of what happened was that the plane ran out of fuel and fell into the water. The crew members were declared dead.

But such search results did not satisfy the aviation community. After some time, an initiative group was formed, which included prominent aviation historians and experienced pilots. This group, which exists and continues its research to this day, is called TIGHAR ( International Group to restore the historical truth about aviation). For decades, TIGHAR has been searching for traces of the aircraft and crew members, repeatedly sending expeditions to the Pacific Ocean.

In the course of the research, a version was put forward that due to some inconsistencies in the map and a communication breakdown, Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan lost their course. They mistakenly went not to Howland, but to another island, now called Nikumaroro, located 650 km to the south. It was assumed that they even managed to land, but the aircraft was badly damaged and could no longer take to the air.

Amelia and Fred themselves survived and spent their last days, leading the life of Robinsons on the island.

It cannot be said with certainty that all the finds found on Nikumaroro could only belong to wrecked pilots. The island was not uninhabited, it was inhabited by a small number of natives. In addition, pearl divers came there every year.

This version has been carefully studied not only by the TIGHAR group itself, but also by many historians and archaeologists. The latter recognized it as unscientific. However, TIGHAR provided numerous proofs that they were right.

Here are some of their arguments.

1. After the disappearance, Amelia sent radio signals for another 5 days, coming from the square in which the island of Nikumaroro was located. This suggests that the airplane did not fall to the bottom of the ocean, but was on land, albeit damaged.

2. In 1940, parts of a female skeleton were found on the island near the traces of a fire. The remains of eaten birds and turtles lay around. The skeleton was sent for examination, but the pathologist concluded that these were the remains of one of the natives who sometimes sailed to the island from neighboring inhabited islands.

3. The result of the examination did not satisfy the members of the TIGHAR group, they organized an expedition to Nikumaroro. At the site of the alleged parking lot, they found a woman's shoe, a cosmetic bag, broken lotion bottles, a broken penknife.

It seems strange in this story that all the finds can only be attributed to Amelia Earhart. But there is no trace of Fred Noonan being on the island. The wreckage of the airplane was also not found.

The researchers suggest that it could have been washed away by tidal waves into the sea. To establish this fact, it is necessary to undertake a new expedition, which is what the members of the TIGHAR group are planning to do in the near future. Their last expedition took place in 2012, in the year of the seventy-fifth anniversary mysterious disappearance Amelia Earhart and her navigator.

From the book 100 great mysteries of the XX century author

From book The Greatest Mysteries XX century author Nepomniachtchi Nikolai Nikolaevich

AMELIA EARHART'S LAST FLIGHT ... Most of the round-the-world trip was left behind, but the most difficult thing lay ahead - a throw across the expanses of the Pacific Ocean. In the summer of 1937, American pilot Amelia Earhart flew around the Earth. She was not the first in this difficult and

From the book Phantasmagoria of Death author Lyakhova Kristina Alexandrovna

Queen of the Atlantic. Amelia Earhart Famous American pilot Amelia Earhart became famous for being the first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean by air. She tragically died trying to set a new record: to fly an airplane around the entire earth.

From the book 500 Great Journeys author Nizovsky Andrey Yurievich

Amelia Earhart: an aerial odyssey with a tragic ending By nature and by vocation, Amelia Earhart was a record holder. She twice crossed the United States from ocean to ocean by air, made a non-stop flight from Mexico City to New York, the first female pilot.

From the book Great People Who Changed the World author Grigorova Darina

Amelia Earhart - the legendary pilot Few people know about Amelia Earhart, unlike the United States and Western Europe, where she remains one of the most popular historical figures for many decades. If we draw analogies, then

Experts conducted a new anthropological examination of the remains found in the Pacific Ocean in 1940. Experts have concluded that they belong to Amelia Earhart, the first woman pilot to cross the Atlantic. She disappeared without a trace, taking off on a flight in her plane on July 2, 1937, writes Science Alert.

The search for the remains of the pilot continued for two years from the moment of her disappearance. When in 1940 desert island Nikumaroro found a skeleton in the Pacific Ocean, experts thought it belonged to a man. However, University of Tennessee anthropology professor Richard Jantz found that the skeleton's forearms were longer than usual. This arrangement of bones is typical of white women who were born in the late 19th century. The skeleton itself was not preserved, so experts carried out an examination of the fragments.

Of course, we have not proven that it was Amelia Earhart who died on a desert island, but this is a significant piece of data that tips the scales in this direction, the experts noted.

On the island where the skeleton was found, they also found several things that could have belonged to the pilot. These are the remains of a flight jacket, a mirror, fragments of aluminum sheets and cosmetic cream for freckles. This allowed scientists to speculate that Earhart spent the last days or months of her life on this island. It was previously believed that her Lockheed plane ran out of fuel and crashed into the water. Therefore, the search for the remains was mainly carried out in the water.

Drowned in the ocean or captured by the Japanese

The American disappeared over the Pacific Ocean along with her navigator Fred Noonan. They made a round-the-world flight and at the time of the disaster they covered 80 percent of the route. Amelia never landed on Howland Island, where an intermediate landing strip was prepared for her, although she was nearby.

The last radio message received from her was: "We are on the line 157-337 ... I repeat ... I repeat ... we are moving along the line." Judging by the level of the signal, the plane should have appeared over Howland any minute, but it never appeared. There were no new broadcasts.

There is also alternative version death of the pilot. Witnesses claimed to have seen Amelia and her pilot being held captive by the Japanese on the island of Saipan. They were accused of espionage and kept in the Garapan prison. Navigator Fred was allegedly killed by the Japanese shortly after being captured, and before the US troops landed on Saipan, the Japanese executed Earhart along with several other American prisoners.

TO THE POINT

10 most mysterious accidents in the history of aviation

1. 1937 Amelia Earhart.

2. 1944 Glenn Miller - the legendary American jazz trombonist - disappeared during a flight from England to France. He had to prepare the performance of his orchestra in the liberated Paris. The plane disappeared somewhere over the English Channel. Wreckage and remains were not found. Experts suggest that Major Glenn Miller's small single-engine Norsman S-64 was shot down by mistake by the Allies.

3. 1945 Flight 19: Five US Air Force torpedo bombers disappeared without a trace in the area bermuda triangle. What marked the beginning of countless stories about mystical events in this anomalous zone. No trace of the bombers was found. The plane that was sent in search of them also disappeared.

4. 1947 Star Dust: An Avro Lancastrian transport aircraft operated by British South American Airways went missing en route from Buenos Aires, Argentina to Santiago, Chile. Before disappearing, he sent a strange message that was never deciphered.

For more than 50 years, the fate of the flight remained unknown until the wreckage of the aircraft was found in 1998 by climbers on Mount Tupungato in the Argentine Andes. He seemed to have crashed into her at full speed.

5. 1962 G. Flying Tiger Line Flight 739: A Lockheed Super Constellation with 107 passengers on board was due to land in the Philippines en route to Vietnam. But he disappeared. The search yielded no results.

6. 1944 Antoine de Saint-Exupery - French pilot, writer and poet, author of The Little Prince, while performing a reconnaissance flight, disappeared over mediterranean sea. The wreckage of his Lockheed R-38 aircraft was not discovered until 2000. In 2008, the memoirs of a German pilot appeared, who assured that it was he who shot down Antoine on his Messerschmitt. But there were no witnesses to the clash, the Germans were not credited with the victory. And no holes were found on the wreckage of Lockheed.

7. 2003"Boeing 727-223"

No. 844AA: The aircraft took off without authorization from Luanda Airport in Angola. Dispatchers tried to establish contact with him, but no one answered. The transpoder responding to radar signals was also silent.

The CIA and FBI searched the plane around the world, describing it as silver with blue, white, and red stripes on the board. According to the official version, the plane, converted to carry diesel fuel, was hijacked by flight engineer Ben Charles Padilla. He disappeared at the same time as the plane. Where did he take it? And why?

8. 2007 Steve Fossett is a famous American businessman and world traveler. balloons, airplanes, airships and sailboats - crashed on a single-engine aircraft while flying over the Nevada desert. Nothing was known about his fate for a year. Internet users joined the search, looking at images from satellites. But tourists found Fossett - in the rugged Minarets mountains, about 9 kilometers west of the Mammoth ski resort area. Why the traveler crashed is unknown.

9. 2009 Air France flight 447: lost over the Atlantic

Airbus A330 en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. And his traces were searched for a long time and unsuccessfully. The main remains were found on great depth one year later. All 228 people on board were killed. Aircraft for some mysterious reason, gaining a height of almost 12 thousand meters, collapsed down.

It is believed that the crew made a mistake, not understanding the readings of the instruments that record speed and altitude.

10. 2014"Boeing 777-200": the airliner, heading from the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, disappeared on March 8, while over the South China Sea. No traces of the 239 passengers and crew have been found, and no debris has been found, although dozens of countries are involved in the search operation. Every day the situation only gets confused: the version of the catastrophe a week later was replaced by the abduction hypothesis. But there are more and more - contradictory - data about which way the liner could go. The range is from Afghanistan to Australia.

4 chose

She won the hearts of dozens of men, but her heart belonged only to heaven. Amelia Earhart, a brave female pilot, proved to the whole world that there is no weaker sex.

First meeting

On July 24, 1897, a girl with amazingly bright blue eyes was born in Atchison, Kansas. Her parents did not even suspect that they were not in vain so reminiscent of the sky, because it was there that Amelia Earhart would direct her gaze all her life.

The girl grew up as a little tomboy. To hell with your bows, frills and dresses! Here, playing Indians and shooting with grandfather's hunting rifle is really cool. One day, 11-year-old Amelia's father took her to a city party. Carousels, sweet candies, lively faces of slightly tipsy bourgeois ... Behind all the colorful turmoil, the girl saw a strange metal structure and her heart skipped a beat. "Amy, look, an airplane," - dad took the girl by the hand.

It was their first meeting...

Little Amy grew into a slender girl with an independent character. She could stand up for herself, she could answer a sharp joke with an even sharper joke ... True, she could not yet give an answer to herself to the question "who do I want to be?" However, Amelia did not hesitate for a long time, it was simply not characteristic of her. Immediately after high school, Ono went to Canada and enrolled in a military hospital. Miss Earhart decided to become a nurse.

Second meeting

Having seen enough of the wounded, who were admitted to the hospital in dozens (after all, the Second World War!) the girl went home to recover a little and rest. At the meeting, her father took her by the chin and looked at her haggard face for a long time: "That's it, my girl, tomorrow we'll go and stare at the air show with you. You'll be distracted a little."

The next day, Amelia watched the tiny airplanes making clumsy pirouettes in the air. The girl did not have to take decisiveness, and without thinking twice, she asked to go into the cockpit. For only 10 dollars! The plane took off, and her heart began to beat wildly ... No, not from fear - from delight! Turn, another turn ... "Let's have another circle?" - the girl persuaded the pilot. And inside her, a decision was ripening: "I want to fly myself!" She, having landed, shared it with the pilot. He laughed at her: "Woman in the sky? It's absolutely impossible. Your place is in the kitchen!"

But Amelia was not just stubborn, she was very stubborn. Why are women allowed less than men?! We'll see who wins!

And the girl began to search. She was looking for a flight school where she would be accepted, regardless of gender. It turned out that there were already female pilots! They even set their own records. For example, Anita Snook, who now even works as an instructor.

To her, properly dressed up to impress, Amelia went. The impression was made, but, alas, not the best. The silk scarf and long kid gloves looked ridiculously smart next to the greasy overalls. Snook demanded crazy money for training - $ 500 for 12 classes. And Amelia began to work hard: her father's law firm, the telephone company, the pharmacy - in six months the girl collected the required amount and at the same time underwent training. At the age of 25, Miss Earhart had her own small bright yellow airplane - "Canary".

On the Canary, Amelia also had her first emergency landing. She failed to gain the desired height, and the plane crashed into eucalyptus trees. "God, what's wrong with the pilot? Is she alive?" - A crowd of onlookers and journalists rushed to the scene of the accident. Running up, they saw Amelia sitting imperturbably among the rubble with an open powder box: "I must look decent when the reporters come running!"

Amelia became famous. Her sharp tongue slim figure and Blue eyes forced many men to be fond of her. A beauty, and even a pilot - exotic! Earhart herself had only one hobby - to ram the sky on her "Canary". And only one goal - to break all men's records.

Third meeting

But the man did show up. It was a luxurious rich man, publisher George Palmer Putnam. At first, there was no question of any romance, because the reason for their acquaintance was ... of course, airplanes!

Putnam suggested that Earhart do the extraordinary: fly across the Atlantic Ocean without a single landing. "It will be a sensation!" he assured in his velvety baritone voice. Amelia did not have to be persuaded for a long time.

"She fits all the bills," Putnam thought to himself, "pretty, charming, able to speak well, and full of courage. This girl in capable hands will make a good capital."

In 1928, a crew of three, including Amelia, took off from Newfoundland and landed at Berryport in Wales 20 hours and 40 minutes later. They covered a distance of 3219 km. From that moment began the real glory of Amelia Earhart. She gave hundreds of interviews, her photo flashed on the covers of newspapers, the pilot traveled around America with lectures ...

During his time with this mocking and overconfident woman, George Putnam made a lot of money. But that didn't bother him the way it used to. After all, he fell in love. He fell in love with this crazy, independent Amelia, who answered him with only ... sympathy.

It took a whole year to negotiate. By this time, Amelia managed to enjoy both fame and flights ... The understanding came that something was missing. Maybe George is nearby? And she agreed.

However, Amelia Earhart would not be herself if she had not set a number of conditions: she would still wear trousers, she would not allow anyone to interfere with her flight plans, and most importantly, if she stopped loving George, she had the right to go to the same minute, no explanation. The conditions were accepted.

Last meeting

A couple of months after the wedding, Amelia decided to fly across the Atlantic again. This time alone. On Amelia, who was boarding the plane, her frustrated husband noticed a smartly tied silk scarf. "And here she is not like everyone else!" - George thought with pride and at the same time with resentment.

She succeeded. And now Amelia was not just famous, she became a national heroine. Amelia and George became frequent guests at the White House. The pilot even became friends with the president's wife, Eleanor.

Once Earhart even gave a ride on a plane to the first lady of the country. They say that Mrs. Roosevelt got out of the plane as white as death, and Amelia laughed out loud: she allowed herself to lay "m-a-scarlet bend."

Desperate Earhart did not calm down. The next important flight was no more, no less - around the world. No sooner said than done!

Before landing, George gave up: "Honey, give up the flight, stay with me. We'll explain everything to the reporters."

Amelia mockingly looked at her pleading husband: "Do you remember our marriage contract?"

She quickly hugged him, patted him reassuringly on the cheek, and ran to the plane. Did she need anyone but the sky?

Venezuela, India, Australia, a tiny island in the Pacific… It was very difficult, almost impossible. Amelia wrote in her diary: "This is not a flight, but a game with death" and carefully crossed out this line.

On June 29, Amelia and her co-pilot took off from the Lae Islands in New Guinea, and only after 12 hours did they get an intermittent connection: "Cloudy ... The weather is getting worse ..."

After 18 hours, another message: "Fuel left for 30 minutes ..." And when these 30 minutes passed, they heard a cry on the radio: "Our course is 157-337. I repeat. Our course ... We are blown to the north, no, to the south ..."

The search for the brave female pilot and her plane continued for several weeks, but nothing was found. No signs of a crash. Nowhere.

Sometimes it seems that Amelia decided to set another record by climbing where no one has climbed. Well, this is quite in her spirit ...

Rita Zheleznyakova etoya.ru

Photo: the.honoluluadvertiser.com, girls-planes.in.ua, wikimedia.org, aviagrad.ru