Files On Amelia Earhart’s Disappearance To Be Declassified And Released By Trump Administration
on Sep 29, 2025
The Pilot Has Been Missing For 88 Years
On July 2, 1937, famed aviator Amelia Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, disappeared without a trace.
Together, they were attempting to set the record for Earhart as the first woman to fly around the world, a milestone which would not be achieved for another 27 years when Jerrie Mock flew solo around the world in 1964.
The disappearance of Earhart has long been surrounded by mystery, with some theories as to her whereabouts being more outlandish than others.
Now, President Donald Trump hopes to put some of the mystery to rest, ordering the declassification and release of “all Government Records related to Amelia Earhart, her final trip, and everything else about her.”
This announcement was made on Truth Social on September 26, and it comes after Trump’s administration has released files regarding the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Despite the highly anticipated release of these documents, many questions still remain in these cases.
Files pertaining to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were promised as well, but have been gradually released in three installments, so far, by Democrats on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform amid ongoing hearings in the Epstein probe.
See Trump’s full statement on Earhart, here:
About Amelia Earhart
When Earhart disappeared, she was days away from her 40th birthday, but she disappeared doing what she loved.
According to the Smithsonian, which has several items from Earhart’s past on display (including her flight suit from 1920), Earhart began flying in 1918, doing her first solo flight after only 10 hours of instruction.
On May 21, 1932, she became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic, earning her notoriety and many awards, such as the Distinguished Flying Cross and the French Legion of Honor.
She also was the first woman to fly from Hawaii to the continental United States, and she had set a significant speed record, flying “non-stop from Mexico City to New York City in 14 hours and 19 minutes,” the Smithsonian notes.
In her efforts to become the first woman to fly around the globe, Earhart had an unsuccessful attempt in March of 1937, during which her plane, Electra, crashed while attempting to take off from Luke Field in Pearl Harbor.
A few months later, she would attempt to fly around the globe again, setting out with navigator Fred Noonan on June 1, 1937.
Of her disappearance on July 2, 1937, the Smithsonian states:
“The Coast Guard cutter Itasca, stationed near Howland Island, picked up intermittent signals from Earhart before she was lost. In one message, she reported that she was circling, unable to locate the island. Ships and radio hams reported receiving mysterious signals over the next two days, but none could be satisfactorily understood or identified.”
It is largely believed that Earhart and Noonan ran out of fuel and crashed into the Pacific Ocean. However, other theories include that they were intercepted by Japanese forces and taken as prisoners, or that they were abducted by aliens.
The search to find Earhart and Noonan was unsuccessful, but it “was the greatest air rescue attempt made to that date, using 10 ships and 102 American planes.”
In 1939, Earhart was officially declared dead by the United States.
Earhart’s husband of six years, George Putnam, remarried in 1939.
A timeline for the release of the files on Earhart’s disappearance has not yet been announced.
