Newly released files could soon shed light on the mystery surrounding pilot Amelia Earhart’s 1937 disappearance, an event that has intrigued aviation buffs and historians for almost a century.
At the order of President Trump, a batch of US National Archives documents has been declassified, including hundreds of pages of intelligence diaries, Coast Guard logs, meteorological records, and military and federal files associated with Earhart and her attempt to fly around the world just before the start of World War II.
On September 26, 2025, President Trump directed government records related to Amelia Earhart and her final trip to be declassified and released. These records are available online at https://t.co/mgItx0H3JW. More records will be added on a rolling basis as they are digitized. pic.twitter.com/CvMuEV2O8P
— U.S. National Archives (@USNatArchives) November 14, 2025
By 1937, Earhart was already a renowned pilot and women’s rights pioneer, having made a name for herself by achieving records such as the first woman to fly solo above 4267 meters (14,000 feet), first woman and second person ever to fly solo across the Atlantic; first woman to fly direct and solo across the USA; and first person to fly solo from Hawaii to the US mainland.
She took off on her last known adventure in May 1937 from Oakland, California, flying a Lockheed Model 10E Electra alongside navigator Fred Noonan. The pair were last sighted in Lae, New Guinea, and were due to refuel on Howland Island, a tiny refuge between Hawaii and Australia, but were never seen again.
Some of the very last footage captured of famed aviator Amelia Earhart before she vanished while attempting to circumnavigate the globe.
— Morbid Knowledge (@MorbidKnowledge) May 13, 2024
On July 2, 1937, Earhart disappeared over the Pacific Ocean with her navigator Fred Noonan.
The two were last seen in Lae, New Guinea, their… pic.twitter.com/JbLl0APMrg
Over the years, speculation about how they met their end has included a crash landing further south than Howland on Gardner Island (now Nikumaroro), or capture and execution as spies by the Japanese. Some once believed Earhart assumed a new identity as a New York banker. Others say she may have been eaten on Nikumaroro Island by coconut crabs.
A planned expedition by Purdue University and Archaeological Legacy Institute researchers is expected to take place in 2026 and will explore the so-called “Taraia Object” (a mysterious offshore artefact) near Nikumaroro using sonar and high-res magnetometry imaging to find out if the mysterious relic is Earhart’s Electra.
Most of the theories over the years have been disproven, but many commentators believe she and Noonan failed to find Howland and ran out of fuel after Noonan failed to take account of the International Date Line in his navigational calculations.
One of the most interesting items in the new batch of archival material is a July 1937 radio log from the US Coast Guard cutter, Itasca, which represents the last known contact with Earhart’s twin-engine. It shows repeated attempts were made to communicate with her, but received no response.
Her final transmission occurred just before 9 am local time on 2 July 1937, confirming she was on line 157 337 – a compass bearing that would have taken her over Baker Island, less than 50km from her intended refuelling spot on Howland, and, tantalisingly, towards Nikumaroro. Further releases from the archives will be published on a “rolling basis,” Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has said.
