Amelia Earhart: Buka Hypothesis

Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan departed Lae New Guinea the morning of July 2, 1937, in Lockheed Electra Model 10E.  They were flying to a refueling stop at Howland Island prior to arriving in Hawaii and onward to California to complete their around-the-world flight.  Their route passed over Buka Island which had an airport/landing strip.  Roughly twelve hours into the flight to Howland Island they are near Nauru Island.  However, due to strong headwinds and other factors, they are running low on fuel.  They realize they may not have enough fuel to reach the vicinity of Howland, or if they do they will not have enough fuel reserve to search for the Howland.  So they turn around in an effort to return to the landing strip at Buka.  When they reach the area a thunderstorm forces them down on a beach on a small island in the coastal waters of Buka.

Dive teams have located an apparent aircraft debris field that may or may not be related to Amelia Earhart’s Electra. However, uniquely identifying characteristics of the debris are consistent with an Electra and time, distance and fuel computations match Earhart’s flight route.  As of the spring of 2022 funding is being sought to return to the area to conduct an underwater archaeology investigation.

Credit: www.projectblueangel.com and Bill Snavely.

Also see the Nikumaroro and Buka Hypotheses.