Official Search
The Navy and The U.S. Coast Guard created a report on their search for Earhart and Noonan. This is a naval route they had documented that was within the area of Howland Island. Air-based searches were also conducted which allowed pilots to try and search from a different perspective to gain clues on the appearance. The problem was that in this era, search and rescue techniques were primitive compared to what is known now so most of the search was based on assumptions and guesses which wasted time and money on dead ends.
A bottle with a message in it was found on the beach in southwestern France that stated Earhart and Noonan had been captured by the japanese and were being held prisoner on the Marshall islands. It was dated on January 7, 1939 which was two years after Earhart and Noonan had disappeared. Hair was included to verify that Earhart was actually there during this testimony. It was believed that the U.S. government intercepted the japanese communication stating Earhart went down in the Marshall Islands but did not want the japanese to know they could crack their codes so Earhart was considered lost at sea.
On July 19, 1939, a newspaper was sent out announcing the official death of Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan. Ever since the disappearance of both pilots, a team of forty-two professional pilots were sent west to retrace the flight taken on by the two. The rescue pilots brainstormed the possible destinations as to where the plane could have crashed. Since the last area Earhart had crossed was near Lexington, expert marine researchers predicted that there was a high chance that they would have landed in the Pacific Ocean. Aerial graphs and charts were extensively created in order to have a better idea of where the plane could have landed and possibly where the debris could have drifted. Although the government was determined to find the lost pilot and navigator, it soon became not only a challenge about where to find them, but also a race against time and money. As the days lingered on, the hopes of finding the two became less and less realistic while the cost of each flight increased substantially. Although the discoveries they found during the rescue mission were not the most reliable, officials were forced to shut down the mission and declare their deaths. To this day, people continue to question their disappearance and try to discover where they could have landed.
