Howland Island is located in the southwest of the Pacific Ocean. The entire island covers an area of less than 2 square kilometers and is uninhabited all year round. However, 82 years ago, an earth-shattering event happened near this seemingly peaceful island.
In 1920, when 23-year-old Amelia Earhart got on an airplane for the first time, she fell in love with the feeling of flying in the sky. Six days later, she signed up for a flight training class. Six months later, she spent all her savings to buy her first plane. In 1927, Amelia became the first woman in the world to fly across the Atlantic Ocean. Of course, her records are not limited to these: the first non-stop, solo woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean, the first non-stop, solo woman to fly across the United States...
It can be said that Amelia was the idol in the hearts of all Americans at that time, and has always been hailed as the "Goddess of Flying" by the outside world. Even the First Lady of the United States has become a die-hard fan of her. Despite her glory, Amelia was never satisfied, and she continued to break through in her flying career until she mysteriously disappeared over the Pacific Ocean in 1937.
In June of this year, Amelia announced that she would fly the "Ericett" plane from Lae, New Guinea, via Howland Island, and then fly to Hawaii, completing a feat of flying across the Pacific Ocean.
Once the news came out, it attracted the attention of all walks of life in the United States. The relevant departments even entrusted Amelia to complete part of the navigation mission when passing through Howland Island, and Amelia readily agreed. Of course, it is not easy to cross the Pacific Ocean. The weather on the sea is changing rapidly, and the aircraft will be destroyed if you are not careful. And just before that, there have been several incidents of mysterious disappearance of ships in the waters of Howland Island.
So in order to better complete the task, Amelia spent a month preparing. On July 2, under clear skies, Amelia boarded the plane and took off safely. The first flight was normal, and Amelia also reported her position to the ground from time to time. Just as the plane was about to fly to Howland Island, the ground received a signal from Amelia calling for help: "My plane flew into an inexplicable mixture, like a sponge, with neither the sky nor the sea in it. I'm still 160 nautical miles away from Howland Island, and the fuel tank is running out..." Amelia's voice became weaker and weaker, as if she had been interfered by a strong magnetic field, and after a few minutes, the signal was completely cut off.
At this time, everyone at Howland Island Airport felt extremely disturbed. On the one hand, the airport commander commanded the control tower to continue to call the "Ericett", and on the other hand, he asked people to light the gasoline barrels on the island so that Amelia could see the land. After 8 o'clock in the evening, the figure of "Ericett" was still not seen in the sky, but according to estimates, the fuel on board should have been exhausted long ago, and people realized that something happened to Amelia!
Howland Island immediately alerted Hawaii and sent a distress signal to all ships near Howland Island. At 23:00 that night, a British cruiser actually received a weak distress signal from Amelia. Although the signal was short, it was at least certain that she was still alive. After seeing a glimmer of hope, the U.S. government formulated an unprecedented rescue plan: including 3 aircraft carriers, 18 warships were mobilized from Pearl Harbor to search the wrecked sea area together; in addition, the U.S. government also sent requests to neighboring countries, hoping to Joint search and rescue.
However, during the entire search and rescue operation, the rescuers seemed to be in front of their eyes, but they were out of reach, as if they were being played by someone. Let's take a look at what they all went through.
On July 6, the French "Soyuz" was the first to receive Amelia's distress signal, but she just said "I am on an island, and the plane is floating in the sea", and then lost contact again. On the same day, several radio amateurs as far away as Los Angeles and Cincinnati also received a distress signal, but there were only two short sets of numbers: 179 and 16. After research and judgment by experts, the search and rescue team rushed to search near 179 degrees west longitude, 16 degrees north latitude and 179 degrees east longitude, 16 degrees north latitude, but found nothing.
On the 9th, radio stations in Hawaii and San Francisco also received distress calls, and the location was 500 kilometers away from Howland Island. However, in fact, the sea area had been searched several times, but they did not find any abnormal phenomena, let alone A plane is gone.
On the 12th, a search and rescue ship discovered that a ball of orange fireworks was rising on the sea 10 kilometers away, and new hope was ignited for people. This group of fireworks seems to be very "naughty", not only ignoring the rescuers, but also keeping a distance of 10 kilometers from the ship. Two hours later, the group of fireworks suddenly jumped up to a height of 30 meters, and after spinning a few times, it suddenly disappeared under the eyes of everyone.
In this way, the search and rescue operation, which cost 4 million US dollars and mobilized 18 warships, ended in such a bizarre way. In 1939, U.S. officials had to officially announce that Amelia had died.
However, 54 years after Amelia disappeared, some explorers found a metal bookcase and a flight jacket in the deep forest of Howland Island. After identification, these turned out to be Amelia's relics. This has convinced many people that Amelia's plane was already on Howland Island at that time, but as to why it was not found, this is still a mystery that has not yet been solved.
