President Trump on Friday announced that he would order the declassification of details surrounding the mysterious last flight of American aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart.
“I have been asked by many people about the life and times of Amelia Earhart, such an interesting story, and would I consider declassifying and releasing everything about her, in particular, her last, fatal flight!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social page.
“She was an Aviation Pioneer, the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, and achieved many other Aviation ‘firsts,’” he continued. “She disappeared in the South Pacific while trying to become the first woman to fly around the World.
“Amelia made it almost three quarters around the World before she suddenly, and without notice, vanished, never to be seen again. Her disappearance, almost 90 years ago, has captivated millions. I am ordering my Administration to declassify and release all Government Records related to Amelia Earhart, her final trip, and everything else about her,” Trump added.
The National Air and Space Museum notes that Earhart “was the second person to fly solo and nonstop across the Atlantic and the first woman to fly solo and nonstop across the United States.” It adds that her flying prowess thrust her into international fame.
The museum adds:
While working as a Red Cross nurse’s aid in Toronto, Earhart attended her first flying exhibition in 1918. In 1920, she went up for her first flight in California in December 1920, with veteran flyer Frank Hawks. “As soon as I left the ground, I knew I myself had to fly,” she declared.
Her first instructor was Anita “Neta” Snook who gave her lessons in a Curtiss Jenny. To pay for flight lessons, Earhart worked as a telephone company clerk and photographer.
Earhart soloed in 1921 and bought her first airplane, a Kinner Airster. Earhart began setting records before she earned her pilots license when she set the feminine altitude record of 14,000 feet in 1922.
In 1923, Earhart became the 16th woman to receive an official Fédération Aéronautique Internationale pilot license.
Earhart disappeared on July 2, 1937, during an ambitious attempt to fly around the world. Flying a twin-engine Lockheed Electra alongside her navigator, Fred Noonan, Earhart last made radio contact while nearing Howland Island, a remote Pacific atoll. Despite one of the most extensive search operations of the era, neither the aircraft nor the remains of its crew were ever recovered, cementing her disappearance as one of aviation’s greatest mysteries.
Earhart’s fateful journey was the culmination of a career marked by groundbreaking achievements. In 1928, she became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic as a passenger, instantly earning international recognition.
Her disappearance has fueled decades of speculation. The most widely accepted theory is that her plane ran out of fuel and crashed into the ocean near Howland Island. Other theories suggest she may have landed on a nearby island and perished as a castaway, or even that she was captured during escalating tensions in the Pacific.
None have been definitively proven, and the mystery continues to inspire research expeditions and public fascination nearly a century later.