23 Lost The Mystery of Amelia Earhart

CHAPTER 1 Who Was Amelia Earhart? AT FIRST, THERE WERE VERY FEW PLANES AND VERY FEW PEOPLE TO FLY THEM. Airplanes and flying were very new things in the early 1900s. There weren't many pilots (people who fly planes), and there were even fewer women pilots! Then one day, Amelia Earhart came along: a woman and a pilot! In December 1920, Amelia goes for her first ride in a plane. After that ride she knows that she wants to fly planes, so she takes lessons. In 1932, she flies across the Atlantic Ocean— alone! The whole world knows about Amelia Earhart now. A newspaper calls Amelia "Queen of the Air." She is famous. Everywhere she goes, people come to see her. They take pictures. By 1937, Amelia Earhart is a very good pilot, and she's ready to fly around the world. She wants to be the first woman to do this. Amelia knows she can't do it alone, so she chooses Fred Noonan to go with her. Fred's a navigator. The navigator's main job is reading the map and choosing the best way to go. Fred and Amelia need a good plane to fly around the world in. They choose a Lockheed Electra. On June 1, 1937, Amelia and Fred take off from Florida, USA. The journey is 29,000 miles (47,000 kilometers)... but can they do it? The world is watching!

CHAPTER 2 The Disappearance SOMEWHERE OVER THE PACIFIC OCEAN, JULY 2, 1937... Fred is trying to find Howland Island. There's a ship called the Itasca near the island. It's waiting to help them. Fred uses the sun and a map to look for Howland. But the island is very small. Maybe it's there below them, but Fred and Amelia can't find it. They fly around, looking for Howland. Amelia is talking to the ship, but then the radio stops working. Why? People in Lae thought they saw smoke coming from the radio antenna before Amelia took off. Did the radio break? What can they do? Some people think they were in the wrong place, 640 kilometers away, near Nikumaroro Island. Did they go there because it was the only other place they could land their plane? When the tide is high, the water around Nikumaroro is deep. There's nowhere to land a plane. So maybe when the Electra had no more gas, it fell into the ocean and Amelia and Fred died. But when the tide is low, you can see a coral reef on Nikumaroro Island. You can land a plane there! So maybe the Electra landed on the island. If Amelia and Fred got to Nikumaroro, they probably died quickly. It's very hot there, and there's no clean water to drink. But maybe they found food and water and lived on Nikumaroro for some time.

CHAPTER 3 Looking for Amelia IF FRED AND AMELIA LANDED ON NIKUMARORO, HOW DID THEY LIVE? In late 1938, some British people begin to live on Nikumaroro. Gerald Gallagher is one of them. He finds some important evidence. He thinks the Electra landed on the island, but in 1941, he dies. Fifty years later, in 1991, Ric Gillespie thinks Gallagher was right. He and his team start looking for Amelia on Nikumaroro. They also find some important evidence. Fire and Bones 1940 Gallagher finds old fires and the bones of a woman about 1.67-1.79 meters tall. That's how tall Amelia was! 1997 Gillespie's team sees old fires. Someone cooked food! And big shells. They're upside down so they catch rainwater. 2010 The team finds fish and bird bones. Someone ate here! Then they find an old finger bone. Is it Amelia's? Bottles 1940 Gallagher finds a bottle near the woman's bones. It's empty. Maybe Fred and Amelia used it for rainwater. 2010 The team finds pieces of glass and many bottles. The bottoms of some bottles are black from fire. Did Amelia and Fred boil water to make it safe to drink?

Makeup and a knife 2010 There's a bottle of 1930s makeup. Maybe it's Dr. Berry's Freckle Cream! Amelia had freckles, but she didn't like them. She didn't want people to see them, so she put makeup on her freckles. The bottle is important. It's in five pieces. The team finds four pieces in one place, but the fifth piece is a few meters away. It's near some turtle bones. There are also parts of a knife. It's like the knife Amelia had. Did Amelia and Fred eat turtles? Did they use the glass and the knife to cut food? Shoes 1940 Gallagher finds an American-made woman's shoe under a tree. 1991 A coconut crab runs by. Near the crab, there's part of a black shoe. It's an American-made woman's shoe from the 1930s! The team finds a piece of a man's shoe, too. Are these Fred and Amelia's shoes? People took pictures of Amelia in Indonesia a few days before her last flight. In the photos, she's wearing black shoes like the ones they found on the island.

Radio messages July 2, 1937, 7:42 a.m. Amelia and Fred are in the Electra. They're going to Howland Island... they think. The people on the Itasca are talking to Amelia on the radio. Amelia says there's a problem. The plane needs gas. "We must be on you, but cannot see you— but gas is running low," says Amelia. "We are flying at 1,000 feet." 1,000 feet? That's only 300 meters! Something bad is happening. The plane is too low. At 9:00 a.m., the people on the ship can't hear Amelia anymore. There's no noise from the radio. July 2 -July 18, 1937 People in the United States, Canada, Hawaii, and Australia say they hear radio messages from Amelia's plane. So Amelia must be somewhere. She can't be dead if she's sending messages! One of the people, Mabel Larremore, from Texas, USA, says Amelia and Fred are on a small island. They're both hurt. The plane is partly on land, partly in the water. There are 120 more radio messages from Amelia. But then the messages stop. Where is she? Where is the Electra? Ships look for them but don't find anything. By July 19, everyone thinks Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan are dead.

CHAPTER 4 The Questions BUT THERE ARE SOME QUESTIONS TO ANSWER. Where's the plane? Ric Gillespie thinks Amelia's plane landed on Nikumaroro, but where is it? A ship, the Norwich City, sank there in 1929. You could see it under the sea for 70 years. So why can't we see Amelia's plane? There are pieces of something on and near the island. But are they pieces of an airplane? And are they pieces of Amelia's airplane? Gillespie thinks so. But people lived on Nikumaroro before Gillespie started to look for Amelia there. Maybe the pieces Gillespie found are from something they used. Where are Amelia and Fred's bodies? Gallagher found bones about the right size for a woman like Amelia. Gillespie talked to people who lived on Nikumaroro many years ago. They also say that a woman's bones were there. But where are those bones now? Nobody knows. Gillespie found a finger bone. Scientists looked at the bone, but they can't say it's Amelia's. Some people say it's from a turtle! And what about Fred's body and bones? What happened to them? Gillespie thinks that after Amelia and Fred died, coconut crabs ate the bodies. Coconut crabs are big, and they eat dead animals, so it's possible.