President Trump announced Friday that he will declassify and release all government records related to aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart, who vanished without a trace nearly 90 years ago.
“I am ordering my Administration to declassify and release all Government Records related to Amelia Earhart, her final trip, and everything else about her. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Earhart disappeared with her flight navigator, Fred Noonan, on July 2, 1937, during an ill-fated attempt to fly around the world.
The aviatrix’s Lockheed 10-E Electra plane is believed to have crashed in the South Pacific, near Howland Island, when it ran out of fuel — but conspiracy theories surrounding the doomed flight and her disappearance have persisted.
“I have been asked by many people about the life and times of Amelia Earhart, such an interesting story, and would I consider declassifying and releasing everything about her, in particular, her last, fatal flight!” Trump wrote.
“She was an Aviation Pioneer, the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, and achieved many other Aviation ‘firsts.’”
The president noted that Earhart, who was 39 at the time of her disappearance, vanished while “trying to become the first woman to fly around the World.”
“Amelia made it almost three quarters around the World before she suddenly, and without notice, vanished, never to be seen again,” Trump continued. “Her disappearance, almost 90 years ago, has captivated millions.”
After her disappearance, the US Navy and Coast Guard embarked on an unprecedented search for Earhart, an extremely popular public figure at the time, at a cost of $88 million in today’s dollars.
The search turned up nothing, and she was declared legally dead in 1939, about 18 months after her disappearance.
Several books and documentaries have been produced about her final flight, with some positing wild-sounding conspiracy theories, including that she was able to land the aircraft but was captured and imprisoned by Japanese troops.
Other theories suggest Earhart and Noonan survived the crash but were marooned and perished on a desolate island.
It has also been speculated that Earhart’s final flight was actually a spy mission, and that her plane had been equipped with cameras to snap images of the Japanese build-up in the South Pacific.
Last year, a group of deep-sea explorers released sonar images of a plane-shaped object near where Earhart’s Lockheed 10-E Electra is believed to have gone down. The object was later determined to be a rock.
The Trump administration has previously declassified and released troves of government files related to the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.
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