Amelia Earhart: The mystery continues, with one secret disclosed

Some residents new to Saipan and Tinian may not be familiar with some of the more intriguing aspects of the recent interest in locating some evidence of Amelia Earhart. The following may provide some background for those unfamiliar with many of the details of a story that continues to fascinate many.

For almost seven decades there has been much speculation has to what actually happened to the famous flyer. Many have searched for a solution to the mystery. None have been successful, but one search on Saipan did result in exposing a government secret.

While the recent attempt to locate the remains of aviatrix Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan on Tinian were unsuccessful, two questions remain as to what happened to the famous pilot and why is much of the American public still interested after a period of 67 years. The first question is harder to answer than the second since no one knows for certain what actually happened. We do know that she was an American hero, and was in the vanguard of the women’s liberation movement and was married to a successful publicist which probably accounts for the initial interest in her attempt to complete an around-the-world flight in July, 1937. She almost made it.

Departing California she flew to Miami, Florida, and over a period of several weeks, she flew to Natal, Brazil, then to Dakar, Senegal, on Africa’s west coast, thence across the continent to Assab, Eritrea, then on to Karachi and Calcutta, India; to Bandung, Indonesia; Darwin, Australia; and to Lae, New Guinea—for what was to become her last stop on her incomplete journey. Her next destination was to have been the desolate and uninhabited Howland Island, 2,227 nautical miles (2,563 statute miles) distant—there to refuel and rest. Then on to Hawaii another 1,650 n. mi. and later—to her starting point in California.

She had planned the Lae-Howland portion of the flight (or so it was announced) so that as she neared Howland Island she would be just south of the Equator skirting the southeastern edge of the forbidden area of the Japanese Mandated Islands in the Eastern Hemisphere in the vicinity of the Gilbert Islands.

When her last radioed message was received by the U.S.S. Itasca, a Coast Guard vessel on station off Howland, she had been flying 20 hours and 15 minutes with 30 minutes of fuel remaining since her departure from Lae. She was never heard from again.

There are some who believe that she may have intentionally departed from the much publicized flight route described above after she left Lae and did not fly directly toward Howland but secretly changed her course to fly 888 n. mi. north from Lae to the Truk Lagoon for the purpose of reconnoitering Japanese activities within the lagoon for the U.S. government. If so, she would then have to turn east and fly 1,063 n. mi. to the vicinity of Jaluit in the Marshall Islands, then fly in a southeasterly direction for 878 n. mi. to Howland. Total flight distance—2,829 n. mi. Almost all of the flight would be deep within the Japanese Mandated Islands. Did she have enough fuel for the extra 602 n. mi.? Many experts have stated that she did. Earhart’s position report at 0720 hours GMT resulted in an approximate estimated time of arrival in the vicinity of Howland at approximately 2005 hours GMT or two hours later than originally anticipated from the Lae-Howland route.

If Amelia Earhart did in fact divert from her publicized flight path after departing Lae and fly over the Truk lagoon—she could be presumed to have been engaged in espionage. She would be America’s own Mata Hari.

But what is the Saipan connection? No one knows for certain until concrete evidence can be found, if ever. The belief that she may have been captured by the Japanese and brought to Saipan after crashing somewhere in the Pacific has long been the subject of speculation and stories from presumed eye-witnesses. (William H. Stewart, Special to the Saipan Tribune)

To be continued