The Search For Amelia Earhart
The fate of the famed aviator Amelia Earhart has fascinated millions for over 80 years. After setting world records in her plane–most notably her solo crossing of the Atlantic in 1932–Earhart set her sights on the circumnavigation of the globe at its widest point, the equator. On one of the final leg's of her round-the-world flight, Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan disappeared over the Pacific, somewhere in the Phoenix Islands. Thousands of hours of research and countless dead-end clues have pointed to Nikumaroro island, a small coral atoll, as her final resting place. In August, 2019, a National Geographic expedition led by Dr. Bob Ballard (who famously discovered the Titanic) set out for Nikumaroro. Two teams searched the island and its surrounding waters for two weeks, but found nothing. Expeditions like this one will likely continue until some definitive evidence is found that can lay the final chapter of Amelia's story to rest.
