Amelia Earhart's disappearance (Howland Island)

Name: Amelia Earhart's disappearance (Howland Island)
Address: US

어밀리아 에어하트 실종 해역 (하울랜드섬)

In 1932 Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. On 2 July 1937, flying around the world with navigator Fred Noonan in a twin-engine Lockheed Electra, she vanished while searching for tiny Howland Island, only about 2.5 km long, where they were to refuel in the middle of the Pacific. A huge search never found the plane, and a day beacon called Earhart Light was built on the island in her memory.

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At a glance

Country: United States
Kind: Mysteries

Quick answers

Where is Amelia Earhart's disappearance (Howland Island)?

Amelia Earhart's disappearance (Howland Island) is in United States.

Howland Island is a tiny uninhabited coral island in the central Pacific, just north of the equator and about 3,100 kilometres southwest of Honolulu. It covers roughly 2.6 square kilometres and is a US nature reserve.

It is best known as the island Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan were trying to reach when they and their plane vanished on 2 July 1937 during a round-the-world flight. The pair were never found. The island is now managed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and visitors are rare. Its low, sandy surface rises only a few metres above the sea.

The disappearance

Earhart was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. Howland was planned as a stopover on her flight around the world, and airstrips were built for her visit, but they were damaged in World War II and slowly disappeared.

What happened after the plane lost contact is still unknown. The mystery has inspired many searches and theories, but none has been proven. The island sits almost halfway between Hawaii and Australia, which is why it was chosen as a stop on a long ocean flight.

The island itself

The island is low and sandy, with a highest point of about 6 metres, and has no natural fresh water. It is covered with grasses, vines and low trees. In the 19th century it was mined for guano, and in the 1930s Americans settled it for a time.

Today the whole island and surrounding sea form a wildlife refuge managed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, home to nesting seabirds and shorebirds. It is visited only about every two years.

Fun facts

In 1937 Amelia Earhart, the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic, vanished near here while trying to fly around the world.
Earhart and Noonan vanished on 2 July 1937.
The island is only about 6 metres high at its top.
It was once mined for bird droppings called guano.