Amelia Earhart's Electra

The account

She had crossed the world and had one speck of coral left to find. The radio grew louder as she neared, and then the ocean went quiet. Crash and sink, castaway on Nikumaroro, or something else: every decade brings a new expedition, a new sonar blur, a new surge of hope. The Electra is still out there, and the Pacific is very large and very patient.

Known intelligence

• Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan vanished on 2 July 1937 near Howland Island, on the hardest leg of a round-the-world flight.
• The Coast Guard cutter Itasca received her increasingly desperate radio calls but never a fix.
• No confirmed wreckage of the Lockheed Electra 10E has ever been found.

Theories of the hunt

• Ran out of fuel and went down in deep water near Howland (the official view).
• Landed as castaways on Nikumaroro (Gardner Island), the TIGHAR theory, citing bones and artifacts.
• Captured by the Japanese, widely circulated but largely discredited.

Leads, where the trail points now

• Where the trail goes cold: 07:42 island time: 'We must be on you, but cannot see you, gas is running low,' radioed to the cutter Itasca off Howland. Nothing verified after 08:43. That is where any serious search begins.
• What you are chasing is The most famous missing aircraft on Earth. Work the documented record of Amelia Earhart's Electra back to primary sources and separate what is attested from folklore before you commit time or money.
• Confirm who owns and governs Near Howland Island, central Pacific and get written permission before any search; treat protected or archaeological ground as off limits.