Amelia Earhart: The 5 theories behind the disappearance of the legendary pilot a century ago

The legendary Amelia Earhart was the first woman pilot which crossed the Atlantic in 1932 and nearly a century ago disappearedtrying to go around the world with airplaneas a result of which various theories are circulating about her fate.

Some claim that he crashed on an island, others that he met a martyr's end and some that he survived and changed his identity. The Business Insider gathered together the 5 main speculations surrounding her disappearance, while citing the facts that are known before she disappeared and passed into the realm of myth.

At July 2, 1937 Amelia Earhart with him navigator by Fred Noonan departed from Lae, New Guinea to fly around the world. Flying over the Pacific Ocean they began to run out of fuel and searched for Howard Island for refueling.

The ship was last contacted “Itasca” of the US Coast Guard asking for directions to find their destination and they have since disappeared. The then American president Franklin Roosevelt ordered a $4 million investigation for finding the pilots, though to this day there is no trace of them.

1.The plane crashed in the Pacific Ocean

The main theory about Amelia Earhart's fate is that her plane crashed in the Pacific Ocean because it ran out of fuel.

Given the difficult conditions prevailing in the region, the technological means of the time and the tension that existed between the US and Japan over sovereign rights in the Pacific, it is reasonable that nothing has been detected until today, the supporters of this theory believe.

2. Landed, but on the wrong island

The experienced pilot knew she was running out of fuel and didn't have time to locate Howard, so she landed in the desert Gardnernow called Nikumarorobelieves the International Historic Aircraft Recovery Group.

Subsequently he tried to escape as a castaway, but was drowned by the strong waves. However, her plane has not been located, so it is considered doubtful that she actually landed, not only on Gardner, but also on another island.

3. He was captured by the Japanese

The US National Archives contains a photograph that shows Japanese soldiers holding a man and a woman prisonerwhere they are not well distinguishedbut they have features that refer to Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan.

This particular theory claims that the pilots they landed in the Marshall Islands and captured them the Japanese, with the latter seeing them as a threat due to the tense political climate that would lead to World War II a few years later.

4. He was a spy

Amelia Earhart stood out at a time when women did not have equal rights with men and in a strongly male-dominated field. Some believe that he succeeded, not because he did not compromise, but because he was a spy for the American government.

THE Randall Brinkauthor of the book “Lost Star”, believes that the legendary pilot he didn't want to go around the worldbut to map Japan's military installations in the Pacific Oceancausing her to be shot down or killed if she landed safely.

Officially, no record mentions Earhart's relations with the American state, but Brink believes that it is not by chance that she chose the Pacific as the beginning of the journey, because in similar cases the efforts started from the Atlantic side.

5. Lived and assumed the identity of another woman

The writer Joe Klass in 1970 he published the book Amelia Earhart Lives, claiming that she was not killed in the Pacific. Instead, lived and was collected by the Japanesewhere they then handed over to US authorities.

However, for some mysterious reason she wanted to keep her rescue a secret and secretly repatriated, while afterwards assumed the identity of “dead” housewife Irene Bolam and lived in New Jersey.

But, the Irene Bolam was alive when the book was published and filed a lawsuit against the author, while those who saw her up close reported that she had no resemblance to the legendary aviator, neither in character nor in appearance.