The U.S. National Archive began releasing documents and records related to the disappearance of American aviator Amelia Earhart over the Pacific Ocean in 1937 yesterday. This follows an order from U.S. President Donald Trump to declassify these records and make them public, 88 years after the mysterious incident. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard stated that the declassified documents include naval records from military ships that participated in the air and sea search operations for Earhart.Contact with Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan was lost on July 2, 1937, just hours after she took off from Papua New Guinea in her twin-engine Lockheed Electra, heading for Howland Island, about 4,000 kilometers away. This occurred during her attempt to fly around the world, after she reported that her fuel was running low.Despite the largest maritime search operation of the time at the time, the aircraft or its wreckage were never found, leaving the mystery of Earhart and Noonan's disappearance unsolved. Researchers interested in the Earhart mystery theorize that they died on the small coral island of Nikumaroro in Kiribati, in the western Pacific. They base this theory on evidence found on the island.A series of expeditions to the island have led to the discovery of what appears to be a 1930s-era spot cream jar, pieces of clothing, human bone remains, a pocketknife of the type Earhart carried, and a piece of aluminum believed to be from their aircraft.
