Amelia Earhart

Amelia Earhart was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, a feat she accomplished in 1932. She also set many other altitude and distance records during her pioneering career as an aviator. Her transatlantic flight took place exactly five years after Charles Lindbergh's famous solo journey.

During her 1937 attempt to circumnavigate the globe, Earhart was flying a twin-engine Lockheed Model 10 Electra. The plane was heavily modified with extra fuel tanks to allow for extremely long over-water flights. It was a highly advanced, expensive aircraft for its time.

Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, were last reported to be flying near Howland Island in the central Pacific Ocean. They were attempting to locate the tiny, uninhabited island for refueling when they lost radio contact with the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Itasca. Heavy overcast conditions made celestial navigation nearly impossible.

No, despite decades of massive, publicly funded searches, no definitive crash site or confirmed wreckage of the Lockheed Electra has ever been found. The most credible theories suggest she either crashed and sank in the deep ocean near Howland Island or died as a castaway on Nikumaroro atoll. Artifacts found on Nikumaroro by The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) remain highly debated.