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  • Amelia Earhart records released by U.S. include her last known communications and search locations for missing aviator

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    The U.S. National Archives has published a batch of newly declassified government records on Amelia Earhart, the American aviator who vanished over the Pacific in 1937, officials said.

    Earhart went missing while on a pioneering round-the-world flight with navigator Fred Noonan, and her disappearance is one of the most tantalizing mysteries in aviation lore.

    President Donald Trump ordered the declassification and release in September of all U.S. government records related to Earhart’s ill-fated final flight.

    Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said the documents released on Friday included “newly declassified files from the National Security Agency, information on Earhart’s last known communications, weather and plane conditions at the time, and potential search locations, as well as subsequent inquiries and theories regarding her disappearance.”

    Further documents would be publicly released on the National Archives website on a “rolling basis” as they are declassified, Gabbard said in a statement.

    The documents include a July 1937 radio log from Itasca, a U.S. Coast Guard cutter that was deployed to support Earhart’s flight around the world. Itasca was the last ship to have radio contact with Earhart and Noonan before their aircraft disappeared. The phrase “Earhart Unheard” appears numerous times in the log.  According to the National Archives, the last communication from Earhart’s plane came at about 8:43 a.m. on Jul 2, 1937: “We are on the line 157 337 wl rept msg we wl rept…” 

    The U.S. National Archives published a batch of newly declassified government records on Friday about Amelia Earhart.

    National Archives


    The documents also include military reports about the search as well as memos, telegrams and newspaper clippings.

    Among them is the July 16, 1960 front page of the San Mateo Times with the headline: “Ex-Serviceman Claims He Saw Earhart Grave.” Former Army Sergeant Thomas Devine told the newspaper that while serving in Saipan, a native on the island showed him an unmarked grave of two white people “who came from the sky.” Devine said believed it to be the grave of Earhart and Noonan.

    In a separate newspaper article, dated Nov. 18, 1970, a researcher claimed that a former Pan American Airways employee had records indicating Earhart survived the crash and sent a distress call that was received by the airline.

    grave-screenshot-2025-11-16-221749.png

    The U.S. National Archives published a batch of newly declassified government records on Friday about Amelia Earhart.

    National Archives


    Many of the thousands of documents published online on Friday have been released previously by the National Archives or made available to researchers, and aviation experts consider it unlikely that the latest material will shed any new light on Earhart’s disappearance.

    Earhart’s final flight has fascinated historians for decades and spawned books, movies and theories galore.

    The prevailing belief is that Earhart, 39, and Noonan, 44, ran out of fuel and ditched their twin-engine Lockheed Electra in the Pacific near Howland Island while on one of the final legs of their epic journey.

    Earhart, who won fame in 1932 as the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic, took off on May 20, 1937 from Oakland, California, hoping to become the first woman to fly around the world.

    She and Noonan vanished on July 2, 1937 after taking off from Lae, Papua New Guinea, on a challenging 2,500-mile flight to refuel on Howland Island, a speck of a US territory between Australia and Hawaii.

    They never made it.

    Efforts to find the aircraft have continued to this day.  Last month, an expedition to try to locate Earhart’s plane on a remote island in the Pacific was delayed until next year.

    A team of researchers was planning to travel to Nikumaroro Island in early November to determine whether something known as the Taraia Object — a visual anomaly seen in satellite and other imagery — is Earhart’s aircraft. They are now awaiting additional clearances from local authorities as they work through the permit approvals, and cannot go later this year due to the start of cyclone season.

    taraia-object-gvk8pu4w.png

    A satellite image shows the Taraia Object in a lagoon on Nikumaroro Island. 

    Rick Pettigrew, Archaeological Legacy Institute


    The underwater object has been visible in photos dating back to 1938, the year after Earhart and Noonan disappeared.

    Researchers previously said there is “very strong” evidence that the object, which is in a lagoon on Nikumaroro, a small island in Kiribati about halfway between Australia and Hawaii, is the iconic aviator’s plane. Some, however, have expressed skepticism. “We’ve looked there in that spot, and there’s nothing there,” Ric Gillespie, executive director of the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, told NBC News in July.

    A team of researchers from Purdue and the Archaeological Legacy Institute plan to take photos and videos of the site, then use magnetometers and sonar devices to scan the area. The item will then be dredged and lifted from the water so researchers can attempt to identify it. 

    Last year, an expedition team captured a sonar image in the Pacific Ocean that appeared to resemble Earhart’s plane resting at the bottom of the sea. It turned out  to be a rock formation.

    Amelia Earhart

    Amelia Earhart poses for photos as she arrives in Southampton, England, after her transatlantic flight on the “Friendship” from Burry Point, Wales, June 26, 1928. 

    / AP


    Stephen Smith and

    Sarah Lynch Baldwin

    contributed to this report.

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  • Amelia Earhart’s long-lost plane likely located in lagoon, expedition team claims, citing “very strong” evidence

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    Researchers from Purdue University are set to travel to the South Pacific to determine if a “visual anomaly” on a remote island is the wreck of Amelia Earhart’s lost plane, saying there is “very strong” evidence the object is the iconic aviator’s aircraft. 

    Earhart was attempting to become the first female pilot to circle the world when she and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared over the Pacific Ocean on July 2, 1937. Earhart, Noonan and their plane, an Electra 10E, were never found. Recently, President Trump ordered records related to Earhart be declassified. 

    In 2020, researchers looking at satellite imagery identified a “visual anomaly” known as the Taraia Object in a lagoon on Nikumaroro, a small island in Kiribati about halfway between Australia and Hawaii, according to a news release from Purdue University. Nikumaroro is about 400 miles southeast of Howland Island, Earhart and Noonan’s planned destination. 

    The underwater object has been visible in photos dating back to 1938, the year after Earhart and Noonan disappeared. 

    A team of researchers from Purdue University, the Purdue Research Foundation and the Archaeological Legacy Institute will travel to Nikumaroro to inspect the object in November. The team will first take photos and videos of the site, then use magnetometers and sonar devices to scan the area. Then, the item will be dredged and lifted from the water so researchers can attempt to identify it. 

    Theories have abounded about Earhart and Noonan’s fates since their disappearance. One theory suggests that Earhart landed on Nikumaroro and was marooned on the island before her death. The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, a nonprofit organization based in Pennsylvania, has collected evidence it says supports the theory. Richard Pettigrew, the executive director of the Archaeological Legacy Institute, said that the expedition offers a chance to find “smoking-gun proof” that confirms the theory. 

    ”We gathered up many more satellite images, did historical research, found other imagery that relates to it,” Pettrigrew said. “We’re going to go look and identify it. And if we’re right, we’ll in fact identify the lost Electra. We could be wrong but I think the evidence is very, very strong that this is, in fact what it is.”  

    Undated picture taken in the 1930s of American female aviator Amelia Earhart at the controls of her plane. 

    Staff / AFP/Getty Images


    However, Ric Gillespie, executive director of the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, has expressed skepticism. “We’ve looked there in that spot, and there’s nothing there,” he told NBC News in July.

    Steve Schultz, a Purdue senior vice president and the university’s general counsel, will be a field assistant on the expedition. He said that if the object is identified as Earhart’s plane, the university hopes it can transport the plane home. Earhart worked at Purdue University for two years in the 1930s, and the Purdue Research Foundation originally paid for the airplane that Earhart flew, the school said. She planned to return the craft to the university after her trip around the world. 

    “A successful identification would be the first step toward fulfilling Amelia’s original plan to return the Electra to West Lafayette after her historic flight,” Schultz said in the news release. 

    Last year, an expedition team captured a sonar image in the Pacific Ocean that appeared to resemble Earhart’s plane resting at the bottom of the sea. It turned out  to be a rock formation.

    Kerry Breen

    Kerry Breen is a news editor at CBSNews.com. A graduate of New York University’s Arthur L. Carter School of Journalism, she previously worked at NBC News’ TODAY Digital. She covers current events, breaking news and issues including substance use.

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  • Trump moves to declassify Amelia Earhart records

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    President Trump told his administration on Friday to declassify any federal records about Amelia Earhart, the pilot whose 1937 disappearance over the Pacific Ocean has drawn decades of public fascination.

    “Amelia made it almost three quarters around the World before she suddenly, and without notice, vanished, never to be seen again,” the president wrote on Truth Social. “Her disappearance, almost 90 years ago, has captivated millions.”

    Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared as they flew toward Howland Island in the Pacific, part of her attempt to become the first female aviator to circumnavigate the world. 

    It’s widely believed that Earhart crashed into the ocean near Howland Island after running out of fuel, says Laurie Gwen Shapiro, a journalist who wrote a book on Earhart. But other theories about where she and her plane ended up have circulated for decades — many of which lack clear evidence. Researchers are planning an expedition to a remote island later this year.

    Amelia Earhart poses for photos as she arrives in Southampton, England, after her transatlantic flight on the “Friendship” from Burry Point, Wales, June 26, 1928. 

    / AP


    It’s not clear what, if any, classified documents the government may have on Earhart.  

    But a lawmaker who represents the Northern Mariana Islands territory in the U.S. House pushed Mr. Trump to declassify and release Earhart records earlier this year, referring to “credible, firsthand accounts” that the aviator was spotted on the Pacific island of Saipan.

    “Despite these recollections, her disappearance and the possibility that she may have died on our islands remain matters of unresolved historical inquiry,” Del. Kimberlyn King-Hinds, a Republican, wrote in a July letter to the president.

    One of the theories is that Earhart was on a spy mission for the U.S. government when she landed in Saipan and was taken into custody by the Japanese. 

    Documents previously released by the FBI contain a 1967 request for a security review of a manuscript that cites Navy files on Earhart that were marked “confidential,” a level of classification. The manuscript’s author, a senior officer in the Air Force, wrote that the conclusions in the Navy report were that Earhart was not on a spy mission, did not crash-land in Saipan, and was not held as a prisoner or executed as a spy. 

    The FBI, in approving that manuscript for publication — which is a typical process for current and former government officials — noted that the Navy files did “not warrant classification since the release of it would not be prejudicial to the national defense.” 

    Shapiro called the theory that Earhart was taken captive in Saipan “nonsense.”

    “It’s 99.9% that she ran out of gas,” Shapiro told CBS News. She said Earhart and Noonan were low on fuel and “very ill-prepared” for their attempted flight to Howland Island, a tiny, difficult-to-find island in the middle of the ocean.

    “It’s very boring to tell people, you know what, she ran out of gas,” Shapiro said. “The fantasy around it is amazing.”

    The National Archives and Records Administration has also previously released documents on the search for Earhart.  

    In 1993, two Hawaiian lawmakers introduced bills in the House and Senate to require the government to release all records relating to Earhart’s last flight and disappearance. The bills called for the declassification of any such relevant records that have been classified as government secrets. The measures never made it out of the committees they were referred to. 

    Mr. Trump’s push to declassify Earhart records follows his decision to release records on the 1960s-era assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr., John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy. His administration is also under pressure to release records on the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

    Joe Walsh

    Joe Walsh is a senior editor for digital politics at CBS News. Joe previously covered breaking news for Forbes and local news in Boston.

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  • Deep-sea exploration company thinks it has found Amelia Earhart’s plane

    Deep-sea exploration company thinks it has found Amelia Earhart’s plane

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    Eighty-six years after Amelia Earhart disappeared, and following countless searches over and in the Pacific Ocean, the founder of a deep-sea exploration company believes he has found her airplane.

    The evidence: a few fuzzy images taken roughly 5,000 meters under the surface of the Pacific, showing what appears to be an object on the ocean floor. Shaped like a plane, the object is located where experts believe the famed pilot went down while attempting to become the first woman to fly around the world.

    Tony Romeo, a pilot and former intelligence officer with the U.S. Air Force, is convinced that the image captured in December by his company, Deep Sea Vision, shows the remains of Earhart’s Lockheed 10-E Electra. The aviator and her navigator, Fred Noonan, vanished in July 1937 after leaving Lae, New Guinea, on their way to Howland Island in the Pacific Ocean.

    Their disappearance gave rise to conspiracy theories that have endured for nearly a century. Deep Sea Vision’s sonar images may be the latest clue for those trying to unravel the mystery.

    “You’d be hard-pressed to convince me that’s anything but an aircraft, for one, and two, that it’s not Amelia’s aircraft,” Romeo told the “Today” show.

    In a statement, the South Carolina-based company states that the images were captured along Earhart’s projected flight path, in an area believed to be “untouched by known wrecks.”

    Romeo, a commercial real-estate investor who sold his properties to finance his search for Earhart’s plane, told the Wall Street Journal he has spent $11 million on travel, gear and an underwater drone. He plans to return to the area to get better images of the object and, he hopes, prove his theory.

    Romeo was not immediately available for comment.

    On Sunday, Deep Sea Vision published to its Instagram account the underwater images. The object appears to have outstretched wings and a tail.

    What became of Earhart has baffled historians and amateur enthusiasts, some of whom have spent millions of dollars searching for clues.

    Some theorize that Earhart and Noonan didn’t crash into the ocean but were stranded on a deserted island where they were forced to land after running out of fuel.

    More outlandish theories posit that Earhart was taken prisoner by Japanese forces, or that she was a spy recruited by the U.S. government for a secret surveillance mission. Others believe Earhart somehow used her disappearance to secretly return to the U.S. and live a quiet life away from the spotlight.

    Most of the clues generated by searches have yielded false hope and dead ends.

    One photo featured in a History Channel documentary, “Amelia Earhart: The Lost Evidence,” suggested that she and Noonan crash-landed and were captured by the Japanese military. Then a history blogger found the same photograph published in a book from 1935, two years before Earhart disappeared, shattering the theory.

    In 2018, researcher Richard Jantz wrote in Forensic Anthropology that bones found on the Pacific island Nikumaroro likely belonged to Earhart. Jantz wrote that he compared the bones to Earhart’s known measurements and concluded that they likely belonged to her. A forensic anthropologist at the University of South Florida used DNA testing in 2019 in an attempt to confirm the theory but would later tell the Tampa Bay Times: “It wasn’t her.”

    Romeo, who told the Wall Street Journal he’s been searching for the plane since September, has scanned about 5,200 square miles of ocean floor. The image resembling Earhart’s plane was spotted by his team while reviewing hours of footage; the spot where it was taken is believed to be about 100 miles off Howland Island, where Earhart and Noonan were planning to refuel.

    Deep Sea Vision searched the ocean floor using what searchers have called the “Date Line theory,” which holds that Noonan miscalculated his celestial navigation when the pair flew across the International Date Line, throwing off their route by about 60 miles, according to a statement from the company.

    If the object in the image is indeed Earhart’s plane, it would appear to be relatively intact despite more than 80 years underwater.

    “We always felt that [Earhart] would have made every attempt to land the aircraft gently on the water, and the aircraft signature that we see in the sonar image suggests that may be the case,” Romeo said in the statement.

    Earhart’s round-the-world flight was supposed to finish in Oakland. After her disappearance, the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard searched the area for 16 days to no avail.



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    Salvador Hernandez

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