Who Amelia Earhart is and why the world is still looking for her after nearly 90 years

According to the official version of the US government, on 2 July 1937 their plane failed to reach Howland Island in the Pacific, ran out of fuel and fell into the sea.

Nevertheless, the "mysterious disappearance" continues to stir the imagination. The wreckage of the plane has still not been found, and millions of dollars have been spent on the search. Every few years, the media is bombarded with a new "sensation" about supposedly found traces, followed almost inevitably by a quiet denial. This is the story of The Conversation.

Most expeditions of the last decades fit into the same scenario: a loud announcement of an "amazing find", a wave of publications in the spirit of "we found Amelia", then - either postponement of the expedition, or quiet scientific criticism and debunking of the version. After that, the story disappears from the news agenda until the next "discovery".

Another surge of interest is related to the so-called "Taraia object" off the island of Nikumaroro in Kiribati - about 640 kilometres southwest of Howland. In underwater photographs, enthusiasts have spotted a silhouette that may resemble an aeroplane. The expedition to the site is being prepared by a team involving Purdue University and the Archaeological Legacy Institute (ALI), led by Richard Pettigrew.

Their hypothesis is based on the long-standing theory of the International Historic Aircraft Search Group (TIGHAR) that Earhart and Noonan ended up on Nikumaroro. However, back in 1937, official searches had already surveyed the area of this island, and no evidence of a crew or aircraft was found.

Nevertheless, ALI is optimistic and continues public fundraising. About $900,000 is planned to be raised for "phase one" - the reconnaissance trip. Later phases - underwater excavation and possible lifting of the wreckage - have not even been estimated yet.

The TIGHAR organisation was founded in 1985 by Rick Gillespie as a private, non-profit project that has been searching for historic plane crashes, including Earhart's plane, since the late 1980s. It has organised more than one expedition to Nikumaroro since 2010. At various times over the years, Gillespie has said he is "absolutely certain" of Earhart's version of landing and dying on the island, but conclusive physical evidence has yet to be presented.

Critics point out that over the decades TIGHAR has not managed to recover a single whole aircraft and has not even produced indisputably confirmed fragments of historic machines. At the same time, the organisation's activities are based on membership fees, donations and paid materials, and transparency of spending to outside observers remains limited.

Professional organisations involved in heritage and historic preservation have also expressed doubts about the effectiveness and motivation of such private projects. They are concerned about the desire to "find and get" at any cost, with little emphasis on subsequent scientific study and preservation of possible finds.

Besides the "Nikumaroro" hypothesis, there are other versions. Part of the researchers adhere to the official point of view: the aircraft crashed and sank near Howland Island.

In 2024, widely discussed sonar images of the company Deep Sea Vision, on which some saw the outlines of a possible Earhart aircraft. However, experts later concluded that it was a natural rock formation. The rebuttal was much less prominent than the initial sensational headlines - many readers were still left with the impression that "the plane seems to have been found".

There are also frankly fantastic theories - about espionage in favour of Franklin Roosevelt, capture by the Japanese, death in New Guinea or secret return to the US under a different identity. All of these theories have been consistently refuted by historians and researchers.

Amelia Earhart's story is convenient material for media myth-making. She was a record-breaker, author of popular books, a symbol of emancipation and a friend of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. Her disappearance at the height of her fame and at the end of the pioneering aviator's "golden age" made her an almost legendary figure.

The media are eager to pick up any new "lead": loud headlines attract the attention of the audience, while cautious scientific analyses and refutations pass almost unnoticed. This feeds the cycle of rumours and expectations - sometimes to the benefit of organisations that need new contributions and donations for the next expedition.

Each new expensive search raises the question: how much money is justified when no conclusive evidence has been found in decades? The authors of The Conversation emphasise that future expeditions should be based on ethical funding and rigorous evidence, and that media coverage should not replace critical research with sensationalism.