Editing Amelia Earhart (section)

== Speculation on disappearance ==
{{main|Speculation on the disappearance of Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan}}
[[File:Nikumaroro Atoll 2014.jpg|thumb|Gardner ([[Nikumaroro]]) Island in 2014. "Seven Site" is a focus of the search for Earhart's remains.]]

While most historians believe Earhart crashed and sank in the Pacific Ocean, a number of other possibilities have been proposed, including several [[conspiracy theories]]. The [[Nikumaroro|Gardner Island]] hypothesis supposes Earhart and Noonan were unable to find Howland Island and continued south. Gardner island, one of the [[Phoenix Islands]] that is now known as Nikumaroro, has been the subject of inquiry as a possible crash-landing site but, despite numerous expeditions, no link between Earhart and the island has ever been found.<ref>{{Cite news|date=October 14, 2019|title=The Amelia Earhart Mystery Stays Down in the Deep|work=[[The New York Times]]|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/14/science/amelia-earhart-robert-ballard.html|access-date=June 26, 2024}}</ref>

The Japanese capture theory assumes Japanese forces captured Earhart and Noonan after they navigated to the Japanese [[South Seas Mandate]]. A number of Earhart's relatives have been convinced the Japanese were somehow involved in her disappearance, citing unnamed witnesses including Japanese troops and Saipan natives.{{sfn|Goldstein|Dillon|1997|pp=244, 266}}<ref name="NevadaAppeal">Henley, David C. [http://www.nevadaappeal.com/article/20091031/NEWS/910319978/1001/ "Cousin: Japanese captured Amelia Earhart"]. ''Nevada Appeal'', October 31, 2009. accessed: November 7, 2009. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131005021033/http://www.nevadaappeal.com/article/20091031/NEWS/910319978/1001/ |date=October 5, 2013}}</ref>

The New Britain theory assumes Earhart turned back mid-flight and tried to reach the airfield at [[Rabaul]], [[New Britain]], northeast of mainland [[Papua New Guinea]], approximately {{convert|2200|mi|km}} from Howland Island.<ref>"The Enduring Mystery of Amelia Earhart's Disappearance Maybe Finally Coming To an End". ''The Atlantic Flyer'', September 2007, p. 3.</ref> In 1990, Donald Angwin, a veteran of the [[Australian Army]]'s World War II [[New Britain campaign]], reported that in 1945 he had seen a wrecked aircraft in the jungle that may have been Earhart's Electra.<ref name=Billings>Billings, David. [http://www.wingsoverkansas.com/earhart/article.asp?id=850 "Aircraft Search Project in Papua New Guinea."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121104062733/http://www.wingsoverkansas.com/earhart/article.asp?id=850 |date=November 4, 2012 }} ''Wings Over Kansas'', 2000. accessed: March 27, 2012.</ref><ref>[http://www.ww2roll.gov.au/Veteran.aspx?serviceId=A&veteranId=762092 "Angwin, Donald Arthur."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304003206/http://www.ww2roll.gov.au/Veteran.aspx?serviceId=A&veteranId=762092 |date=March 4, 2016 }} ''Commonwealth of Australia: Military Forces'', 2002. accessed: March 27, 2012.</ref> Subsequent searches of the area failed to find any wreckage.<ref name=Billings/>

In November 2006, [[National Geographic Channel]] aired an episode of its series ''Undiscovered History'' that supposed Earhart survived the world flight, changed her name, remarried, and became [[Irene Craigmile Bolam]]. This claim had originally been published in the book ''Amelia Earhart Lives'' (1970), which is based on the research of Joseph Gervais.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Gillespie |first=Richard |title=Is This Amelia Earhart? |url=http://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Books/BookReviews/earhartsurvive.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100907000705/http://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Books/BookReviews/earhartsurvive.html |archive-date=September 7, 2010 |access-date=April 10, 2025 |website=The Earhart Project}}</ref> Shortly after the book's publication, Bolam filed a lawsuit requesting $1.5&nbsp;million in damages (equivalent to ${{Inflation|US|1.5|1970}}&nbsp;million in {{Inflation/year|US}}) and the book's publisher [[McGraw-Hill]] withdrew it from the market; court records indicate the company reached an out-of-court settlement with her.<ref name=":0" />