Amelia Earhart was one of the most important people of modern times. American aviation pioneerShe was an author and advocate for women’s rights the first woman to cross the Atlantic alone. However, the story of her and her husband had one tragic end surrounded by mysteries.
Amelia and navigator Fred Noonan left California on May 21, 1937. The plan was ambitious: circumnavigate the world in two years. En route east, they made stops in Arizona, Louisiana, and Florida. then the Lockheed 10E ElectraThe aircraft selected for the company flew to Puerto Rico, Venezuela and Suriname.
they also went through Brazil. On June 6th he left Fortaleza for Natal and on the 7th he left the capital Potiguar to cross the South Atlantic to Senegal. to break the time record for the trip. The couple’s plan was to retire from this world of adventures after completing the trip. However, A tragedy ended sadly for the adventuress and her husband.
On July 2, Amelia was en route to Howland Island, an unincorporated US territory in the South Pacific. She had already crossed Asia and Oceania. There was only one more stop in Hawaii and the great endeavor would be complete.
After taking off from Lae Atoll, which is now part of the Marshall Islands, the two met disappeared near the Nukumanu Islands, about 1,300 km after launch. Since then many conspiracy theories was born. However, there may be clues as to what happened to the couple.
giant crab
The searches lasted two months, but only makeup and a knife believed to belong to Amelia were found on Nikumaroro Island in Kiribati. In 1939 she was pronounced dead.. The duo’s whereabouts have never been determined. But on this very island, Nikumaroro, lies a theory for the tragic ending.
According to Tighar, an acronym in English for The International Group for the Restoration of Historic Aircraftan NGO dedicated to aviation archeology and history is the reason the bodies were never found The world’s largest land arthropod, the coconut crab can reach a width of 1 meter and a weight of 4 kg. Its pincers are stronger than the bites of many larger mammals..
The Tighar managed to land at Nikumaroro, but could not demand a ransom. After all, they would die on the island. However, Where would the bodies be? This is where the giant arthropod comes into play.
In 1940, the colonial administrator of Nikumaroro, then under British rule, named Gardner, reported this Remains of a human skeleton were found. There were 13 bones that were sent to Fiji for analysis. The administrator said the location where the bones were found is at crab patches.
The coconut crab is omnivorous, meaning it eats both plants and animals. It is also called the thief crab because of its habit of grabbing what it wants to eat and taking it with it. Tighar conducted several experiments to find out if crabs were interested in bones and dragged them into their burrows.
One of the experiments was to give the crabs a pig carcass to eat. The result was this In two weeks, almost nothing was left of the remains of the animal.
The bones mysteriously disappeared, making a more accurate answer to the riddle difficult. Based on the analysis from 1940 and more recent studies, they were able to conclude There is a 99 percent certainty that the bones are Amelia Earhart. It is quite possible that the couple died while awaiting rescue his remains were eaten by crabs.
*With information from Uol