July 2:

July 2, 2012

July 2: Amelia Earhart disappears

On July 2, 1937, the Lockheed aircraft carrying American aviator Amelia Earhart and navigator Frederick Noonan is reported missing near Howland Island in the Pacific. The pair was attempting to fly around the world when they lost their bearings during the most challenging leg of the global journey: Lae, New Guinea, to Howland Island, a tiny island 2,227 nautical miles away, in the center of the Pacific Ocean. The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Itasca was in sporadic radio contact with Earhart as she approached Howland Island and received messages that she was lost and running low on fuel. Soon after, she probably tried to ditch the Lockheed in the ocean. No trace of Earhart or Noonan was ever found.

The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (or TIGHAR) suspects that Earhart’s Lockheed Electra landed on a reef of the uninhabited coral atoll formerly known as Gardner Island and stayed there for several days before waves washed the aircraft over the reef’s edge — perhaps enough time for the aviator and her navigator to have sent out radio distress calls. The expedition plans to deploy ship sonar and two robot submersibles to search the slope of the underwater reef for any aircraft parts. The expedition is scheduled to set out aboard the Hawaiian research vessel “Ka’Imikai-o-Kanaloa” from Honolulu on July 2 — the 75th anniversary of Earhart’s disappearance.

For more information about Amelia Earhart and the recovery efforts visit:

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/amelia-earhart-disappears

http://news.discovery.com/tech/amelia-earhart-robot-search-120622.html