What Really Happened to Amelia Earhart?

The final flight of the world’s most famous pilot ended in mystery. In 1937, Amelia Earhart vanished over the Pacific Ocean while trying to become the first woman to fly around the world. She has never been found.

But now, researchers hope to finally discover what happened to the aviator, with the help of a sophisticated new search tool: dogs.

A team of canines recently located what could be the site of Earhart’s remains on Nikumaroro (see map, below). The atoll in the Pacific Ocean is part of the nation of Kiribati.

Researchers from The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) believe that Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, crash-landed on Nikumaroro and lived there for weeks before perishing.

TIGHAR, along with the National Geographic Society, took specially trained dogs to the island to hunt for new clues. Will their findings solve the Earhart case once and for all?

Many historians believe Earhart ran out of fuel, crashed in the ocean, and died at sea. She had set off from Papua New Guinea early on July 2, 1937. Her next planned stop was Howland Island.

But the sky was overcast, and she probably couldn’t find the island. After about 21 hours of flying, her fuel likely ran low. Her final radio call for help was received at 8:45 a.m.

Nikumaroro, which is relatively close to Howland Island, would have been a natural place for ­Earhart to land, says Ric Gillespie of TIGHAR. Plus, he says, days after Earhart disappeared, radio operators on islands near the atoll reported hearing distress calls.

For years, Gillespie and his team have searched Nikumaroro for evidence of Earhart. They’ve found many artifacts, such as what could be the pilot’s pocketknife. But no bones or other human remains have emerged to definitively link Earhart or Noonan to the island.

That’s where the dogs came in. They can detect human remains as deep as 9 feet underground and up to 1,500 years old. 

On Nikumaroro, four dogs separately led their handlers to a specific spot under a tree. The soil from that area is now being tested for human remains.

Yet finding Earhart’s remains on Nikumaroro won’t be easy, experts say. The island’s heat and humidity are “really tough” on human bone, says archaeologist Fredrik Hiebert, a member of the team searching for the pilot. Plus, he adds, the atoll’s terrain is largely “chunks of coral that, when dirty, look just like bone.”

Still, Gillespie won’t give up on proving his theory that Earhart died as a castaway on Nikumaroro. He says: “There hasn’t been any doubt in my mind for years that this is what happened.”