President Donald Trump now plans to declassify and release all government files on the 1937 disappearance of Amelia Earhart. Amid news of tariffs, the Comey prosecution, and an apparently inevitable government shutdown, the president’s announcement may seem like it came out of the blue at random. Well, perhaps it did. Nevertheless, it represents the next step in Trump’s trend of ordering the release of files related to historic figures like John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Theories abound as to what may have happened to Amelia Earhart, and Friday’s announcement was met by many with excitement and intrigue. What secret files does the government have on the famous aviator? What mysteries may be cleared up, if any? But not all reactions were positive. For those Americans still waiting on the promised release of the Epstein files, this announcement landed like a slap to the face.
Amelia Earhart, America’s Missing Aviator
In a post on Truth Social on Friday, September 26, Donald Trump called on the government to unseal all remaining classified documents on Amelia Earhart, her disappearance, and the attempts to find her. She disappeared almost 90 years ago in an attempt to be the first woman aviator to circle the globe.
In 1932, Earhart became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross, an award from the US military recognizing heroic or extraordinary achievement in flight, for her efforts. Amelia Earhart took off for her second attempt at going around the world on June 1, 1937. She had previously attempted to fly west from Oakland, California, but crashed in Hawaii. This time, however, she left from Miami, Florida, and flew east.
And as far as anyone can tell, she nearly made it.
Her last radio message was received on July 2, 1937, at just shy of 8:45 a.m. Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, reported they were “on the line of position 156-137.” They were on approach to Howland Island, about 1,600 nautical miles southwest of Honolulu, Hawaii – about halfway to Hawaii from Australia. They were reportedly running low on fuel and planned to refuel on the island before striking out again over the Pacific to finish the journey, but they were never heard from again.
Theories abound as to what happened to Amelia Earhart and her navigator. The most commonly accepted – and the one backed by the US government – is the crash and sink theory. Earhart and Noonan got off course trying to find the island, ran out of fuel, and crashed into the ocean, this theory states.
Proponents of the Nikumaroro Island Theory, on the other hand, believe the aviators made it to a remote atoll in the general vicinity of Howland Island called Nikumaroro. They may even have survived for some time here, trying to radio for help before the plane was washed into the ocean. The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) believes artifacts found on the island could be from their planes – there’s even a castaway skeleton!
The US Navy searched, of course, but found nothing more. They looked for 16 days and spent more than $4 million on the search. It was the longest, most expensive attempt to locate a lost plane and pilot in American history to that point. And naturally, when the search failed, numerous conspiracy theories formed.
Some believe Amelia Earhart was actually on a secret spy mission for the government to photograph Japanese military bases. Some proponents of this theory believe she was shot down by the Japanese, captured and later killed, or even captured and then returned to the US in disguise. Not all alternate identity theorists, however, believe she worked for the US government. Some think she stayed in Japan and became one of the “Tokyo Rose” broadcasters who delivered pro-Japanese propaganda to Allied troops during World War II. Or, maybe she moved to New Jersey and remarried under the name Irene Craigmile Bolam, as author Joe Klass claimed in his book. For what it's worth, however, Bolam was asked later if she was really Earhart in disguise - a claim she consistently denied.
Most likely, Earhart and Noonan went down somewhere in the Pacific and were lost – whether that was near or on either of the islands or out over open water. One must wonder, though, what secret government files still exist on her.
Declassifying Donald?
One must also wonder why President Trump chose to order those files released to the public – and whether or not it will actually happen. He ordered all remaining files pertaining to the JFK, RFK, and MLK assassinations released shortly after taking office back in January. In March, many of those files were released. But as of late September, there do remain some files on all three of those men still under seal.
And that’s ignoring the Jeffrey Epstein situation. President Trump promised to release the Epstein files before the 2024 election. In February, Attorney General Pam Bondi released the first batch, but much of it was stuff that had already been made public. That is, her “release” was largely a nothing burger. Democrats from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform have so far released three batches of files from the Epstein estate, but to date, much of what the government has remains classified. It doesn’t exactly inspire trust in the Trump administration’s promises of transparency.
The president’s Friday announcement sparked backlash from those still waiting on the previously promised full reveal – and Democratic Party politicians wasted no time capitalizing on that. Still, it’s a tantalizing proposition, looking forward to a document dump by the government 90 years after the ill-fated flight. It’s an intriguing mystery, and it’s difficult not to get excited about finally getting some answers.
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