Earhart’s plane vanished during her attempt to fly around the world in 1937. Trump says her disappearance has “captivated millions.”
WASHINGTON D.C., DC — President Donald Trump announced Friday that he has commanded the declassification and public issuance of all government records concerning aviator Amelia Earhart, indicating her 1937 disappearance while attempting a round-the-world flight has “captivated millions.”
Trump described her fate as an “interesting story” and mentioned that many have been requesting him to unveil all government-held information on her. Earlier this year, upon his return to office, he pledged to declassify and disclose records of several high-profile individuals, though Earhart wasn’t initially included in those names.
The Republican president’s administration has since disclosed thousands of pages of documents regarding President John F. Kennedy, his brother Robert F. Kennedy, and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. All three figures were assassinated during the 1960s, yet the disclosures contained no groundbreaking revelations.
Both the FBI and the National Archives and Records Administration have already released collections of documents about Earhart. Many dedicated to unraveling the mystery of her disappearance nearly 90 years ago are skeptical of the availability of more significant information the government might possess about her.
Earhart was a trailblazing aviator and the first woman to complete a solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean. She vanished in the South Pacific during her bid to become the first woman to fly around the globe.
“Amelia made it nearly three-quarters around the World before she mysteriously and unexpectedly disappeared, never to be seen again,” Trump posted on his social media platform. “Her mysterious disappearance, nearly 90 years ago, has captured the imagination of millions. I am directing my Administration to declassify and release all Government Records related to Amelia Earhart, her final journey, and any other information about her.”
Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, vanished while flying from New Guinea to Howland Island as part of her attempt to become the first female pilot to fly around the world. She had radioed that she was running low on fuel. The Navy searched but found no trace.
The U.S. government’s official position has been that Earhart and Noonan went down with their plane. She was declared legally dead in 1939.
Since then, theories have abounded, with some veering into the absurd, including abduction by aliens, or Earhart living in New Jersey under an alias. Others speculate she and Noonan were executed by the Japanese or died as castaways on an island.
Ric Gillespie, executive director of the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, who has studied Earhart for decades, doubted that much more information on the famed aviator remains to be released. He cited the document dumps by the FBI and the National Archives.
“There’s nothing still classified by the U.S. government on Amelia Earhart,” Gillespie said in a telephone interview.
But Mindi Love Pendergraft, executive director of the Amelia Earhart Hangar Museum, said in an email that Trump’s action “is sure to pique the interest of those dedicated to uncovering the mystery of Earhart’s disappearance.”
“If these records shed any light on Earhart’s fate, it is a welcome action for Earhart historians and enthusiasts,” she said.
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