By DARLENE SUPERVILLE, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump announced Friday that he has ordered the declassification and public release of all government records about aviator Amelia Earhart, who vanished in 1937 during an attempt to fly around the world.
Trump said it’s an “interesting story” that has “captivated millions.” He said people have asked him whether he’d consider declassifying and making public everything the government has on her.
“She was an Aviation Pioneer, the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, and achieved many other Aviation ‘firsts,’” he wrote on his social media site. “She disappeared in the South Pacific while trying to become the first woman to fly around the World.
“Amelia made it almost three quarters around the World before she suddenly, and without notice, vanished, never to be seen again,” he continued. “Her disappearance, almost 90 years ago, has captivated millions. I am ordering my Administration to declassify and release all Government Records related to Amelia Earhart, her final trip, and everything else about her.”
Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, disappeared while flying from New Guinea to Howland Island as part of her attempt to become the first female pilot to circumnavigate the globe. She had radioed that she was running low on fuel.
The Navy searched but found no trace. The U.S. government’s official position has been that Earhart and Noonan went down with their plane.
Since then, theories have veered into the absurd, including abduction by aliens, or Earhart living in New Jersey under an alias. Others speculate she and Noonan were executed by the Japanese or died as castaways on an island.
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