Who was Amelia Earhart... and why is Trump so interested in her?

Amelia Earhart, one of the most iconic figures in aviation, captured the world's imagination with her pioneering feats and tragic end. Earhart became a female icon in the early 20th century after becoming the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic in 1932, breaking down barriers in a field that was dominated by men.

Her legacy as an advocate for women's rights and her adventurous spirit have kept her at the center of American history. Still, her disappearance in 1937 remains one of the most enduring mysteries of the modern era.

Recently, President Donald Trump revived interest in Earhart by ordering the declassification and release of all government records related to her life and final flight. In a post on Truth Social:

"Amelia made it almost three-quarters around the World before she suddenly, and without notice, vanished, never to be seen again. Her disappearance, almost 90 years ago, has captivated millions. I am ordering my Administration to declassify and release all Government Records related to Amelia Earhart, her final trip, and everything else about her.”

Who was Earhart?

Earhart, born in 1897 in Kansas, developed a passion for aviation during World War I and quickly rose to fame. In 1928, she was the first woman to cross the Atlantic as a passenger, but her 1932 solo flight enshrined her as "Lady Lindy", a nickname in honor of aviator Charles Lindbergh.

She was also the first person to fly non-stop from Hawaii to the U.S. mainland in 1935, and her career was not limited to the skies: she founded organizations for women aviators and advocated for women's access to education and work.

Dorothy Cochrane, of the Department of Aeronautics at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, described Earhart as a unique figure:

"When [Earhart] became a pilot and built this successful career, you know, she fulfilled her personal interests, but she also then promoted the interests of women, both in aviation and in society in general. Part of that, and then her successes, are why she's such an iconic figure," she said, according to reviews of Fox News.

In June 1937, Earhart, aboard a Lockheed Electra 10E nicknamed "Electra," began her attempted global circumnavigation of the equator, the most ambitious flight of the era. Accompanied by Noonan, an experienced navigator, she took off from Oakland, California, and completed the west-to-east leg, covering more than 29,000 kilometers in 19 days.

The plane disappeared without a trace

However, on July 2, 1937, during the final leg from Lae, in New Guinea, to Howland Island in the Pacific, the plane disappeared. Earhart radioed that they were running out of fuel and could not locate the island, a tiny atoll in the middle of the vast ocean.

For its part, the U.S. Navy launched the most expensive search in its history until then, spending more than $4 million (equivalent to about $80 million today), but found no trace of the plane or its occupants, according to the media outlet Daily Express.

An unsolved mystery and many theories

Decades later, the mystery persists and fuels certain theories ranging from the plausible to the conspiratorial. One popular hypothesis suggests that Earhart and Noonan landed on Nikumaroro Island (formerly Gardner Island), about 650 miles from Howland, and died as castaways.

Another theory, prompted by eyewitness accounts in the Northern Mariana Islands, proposes that they were captured by Japanese forces on Saipan, possibly as U.S. spies monitoring activities in the Pacific, as indicated by statements from islanders in the area and reported by the media outlet Daily Mail.

But Cochrane, an Earhart expert, rejects these sensationalist narratives: "There’s no real mystery surrounding the Electra’s disappearance. Amelia and Fred were on the right path. They had the course to get to nearby Howland Island. … It was such a small island in the middle of nowhere, and there were radio communications issues; they could not find it before they ran out of fuel."

Instead, she emphasizes the facts reported by the Coast Guard on Howland: "There are facts to be followed from the Coast Guard folks who were awaiting them at Howland, so it's pertinent to search in and around Howland," she insists.

President Trump's order

Trump's order has been greeted with enthusiasm by the community dedicated to Earhart. Mindi Love Pendergraft, executive director of the Amelia Earhart Hangar Museum in Atchison, Kansas—the aviatrix's hometown—told the Associated Press that the move “is sure to pique the interest of those dedicated to uncovering the mystery of Earhart's disappearance.” “If these records shed any light on Earhart’s fate, it is a welcome action for Earhart historians and enthusiasts.”

The investigation continues

In July of this year, the Purdue Research Foundation in Indiana and the Archaeological Legacy Institute of Oregon announced an expedition to Nikumaroro to investigate the "Taraia Object," a visual anomaly detected by satellite in the island's lagoon, which could be the remains of the Electra.

The team, which includes experts from Purdue—where Earhart was a consulting professor in the 1930s—will set sail from the Marshall Islands on Nov. 4 this year and will spend five days on the remote island, halfway between Australia and Hawaii. 

Along those lines, Steven Schultz, legal director of the Purdue Research Foundation, commented on a recent report by Fox News that:

"One of the aspects of that message was he ordered the release of any classified material related to Amelia and her final flight. To our knowledge, there are no records; there are no such records that remain to be unclassified."

If the finding is confirmed, they plan a major excavation for 2026 to recover the remains and "complete the heroic journey Earhart began nearly a century ago."

Hands on: FBI seeks all files

The FBI has instructed its employees in both Washington and New York to immediately search for any related records. Along those lines, agency employees, according to reviews on CNN, have received the following message:

“Per a priority request from the Executive Office of the President of the United States, please search any areas where papers or physical media records may be stored, to include both open and closed cases, for records responsive to Amelia Earhart.”