Long-lost letter from Amelia Earhart’s captain detailing their final fateful trip and sent from Indonesia to the US just eight days before they disappeared in 1937, is discovered in San Diego
- A letter from by Captain Fred J. Noonan to a friend shares details of Amelia Earhart’s famous flight
- Noonan was Earhart’s partner when she aimed to be the first female pilot to fly around the globe
- The letter was sent to a friend of Noonan, whose grandson recently found at his mother’s home
- The 17-page letter provides dates, locations and weather along the flight path, and is postmarked 8 days before the pair disappeared over the Pacific
A long-lost letter detailing Amelia Earhart and her Captain Fred J. Noonan’s adventure around the globe has been discovered nearly 84 years after the pair went missing.
The handwritten, 17-page letter is postmarked just eight days before the duo issued their last radio call from somewhere over the Pacific Ocean.
It was mailed on June 23, 1937 from the Grand Hotel in Indonesia and contains specific details of dates, locations and weather challenges that Earhart and Noonan faced along the fateful flight path.
The letter is one of four discovered by San Diego-resident Hunter Person, whose mother found them rolled up in her father’s desk 40 years ago.
Person’s grandfather was a close friend of Noonan and the two had exchanged letters for years and even up until the captain disappeared.
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The handwritten, 17-page letter is postmarked just eight days before the duo issued their last radio call from somewhere over the Pacific Ocean. It was mailed on June 23, 1937 from the Grand Hotel in Indonesia
Earhart took to the sky on June 1, 1937 to be the first female aviator to fly around the world.
She and her navigator Noonan left Oakland, California then flew to Miami, down to South America, across to Africa and then east to India and South Asia.
A few weeks later, they departed Lae in Papua New Guinea and planned to stop on Howland July 2, 1937 to refuel.
Earhart and Noonan eventually lost radio contact and were never heard from or seen again.
It contains specific details of dates, locations and weather challenges Earhart and Noonan faced along the fateful flight path
Pictured are Amelia Earhart (left) and Captain Fred Noonan (right) on June 11 1937. This was 10 days into their adventure when the pair stopped at the hangar at Parnamerim airfield, Natal, Brazil,
The long-lost letters are postmarked from 1935 through 1937 and could holding missing clues to what happened after Earhart and Noonan left Papua New Guinea.
‘It’s an exciting letter. You know, like I say, it tells the whole trip, and the last postmark was from Bandung, Java,’ Person told KSWB.
The letter is one of four discovered by Hunter Person, from San Diego, whose mother found them rolled up in her father’s desk 40 years ago
‘It describes, you know, the flight like no one has ever read it before.
‘And they were handwritten by Captain Fred J. Noonan, Amelia Earhart’s navigator who was with her on the tragic flight.’
Person’s mother, Beverly, told her father and Noonan had been corresponding through since she was just 15 years old and some of the letters were also addressed to her.
Experts are amazed by the letter because it is the last complete account of the trip days before the pilots went missing and it could provide a trail to where the plane may have been resting all these years.
The mystery of Earhart’s disappearance also produced a number of theories – from crashing to landing on and island an island outside of Howland or being taken as hostages by the Japanese.
Person’s mother, Beverly, told her father and Noonan had been corresponding through since she was just 15 years old and some of the letters were also addressed to her (pictured)
The mystery of her disappearance has produced a number of theories – from crashing to landing becoming castaways on an island outside of Howland to being taken as hostages by the Japanese
Although no one has confirmed what really happened, many have accepted the challenge to solve the puzzle, with the latest being scientists from Penn State University.
In February, the team announced they are using a nuclear reactor to analyze a metal patch found on a small Pacific Island in 1991 to determine if the piece belonged to Earhart’s Lockheed Model 10-E Electra plane.
The patch was obtained from Richard Gillespie, who leads The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) that has been focused on Earhart’s disappearance since 1988.
Experts are amazed by the letter because it is the last complete account of the trip days before the pilots went missing and it could provide a trail to where the plane may have been resting all these years. Pictured is ‘Amelia Earhart’
Although no one has confirmed what really happened, many have accepted the challenge to solve the puzzle, with the latest being scientists from Penn State University . The team announced they are using a nuclear reactor to analyze a metal patch found on a small Pacific Island in 1991 to determine if the piece belonged to Earhart’s Lockheed Model 10-E Electra plane
Gillespie found the metal panel in storm debris on Nikumaroro, a Pacific island about 300 miles away from Earhart’s actual destination of Howland Island.
Using a nuclear reactor, the team was able to send powerful beams through the patch to uncover paint particles or eroded etching that may go unnoticed to the naked eye.
The group is set to reveal their findings sometime this year.
WHAT ARE THE THEORIES ON AMELIA EARHART’S FINAL DAYS?
Theory One: Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan crash into the Pacific a few miles short of their intended destination due to visibility and gas problems, and die instantly.
Theory Two: Earhart and Noonan crash land on the island of Nikumaroro, where they later die at the hands of coconut crabs, which hunt for food at night and grow up to three-feet long. The name comes from their ability to opened the hardened shells of coconuts.
Theory Three: Earhart and Noonan veer drastically off course and crash land near the Mili Atoll in the Marshall Islands. They are rescued but soon taken as prisoners of war by the Japanese and sent to a camp in Saipan. Noonan is beheaded and Earhart dies in 1939 from malaria or dysentery.
Theory Four: Earhart and Noonan make it to Howland Island as planned and are eaten by cannibals.
Theory Five: Earhart was an American spy sent to gather information on the Japanese ahead of World War II.
Theory Six: Earhart and Noonan are unable to locate Howland Island, and head toward their ‘contingency plan’. After a ten hour journey back toward the location they came from, they crash in the jungle of East New Britain Island, in what is now known as Papua New Guinea.
There are several conflicting theories about Earhart’s disappearance. The alleged details of Earhart’s final flight, and where she is believed to have ended up based on different theories over the years
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