The Trump administration has released more than 4,600 pages of government documents related to aviator Amelia Earhart, whose 1937 disappearance has fueled decades of speculation and conspiracy theories. The files, published online on Friday by the National Archives, are being framed by the White House as a move toward transparency, but Earhart experts have largely dismissed the release as underwhelming, noting that much of the material was already public, per the New York Times.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard insisted that the latest document dump "will shine light on the disappearance of a beloved American aviator who has been at the center of public inquisition for decades," per a release. But Richard Gillespie of the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery said most of the "really good stuff" about Earhart isn't in government files, and that his organization already hosts the most comprehensive trove of primary sources elsewhere online. The new release includes some items that hadn't previously been digitized, as well as a handful of declassified NSA documents, but many of the papers were already stamped "unclassified" decades ago.
The enduring mystery of Earhart's final flight with navigator Fred Noonan—no wreckage has ever been found—continues to draw interest, but scholars like Laurie Gwen Shapiro say the existing evidence still points to the likeliest scenario: Earhart's plane ran out of fuel and crashed in the Pacific while attempting to reach Howland Island. "I went to sleep not thinking 'What's going to be revealed?'" she said of the new release.
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The Earhart files are the latest in a series of high-profile document dumps by the Trump administration, following releases related to the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. These earlier releases were also criticized for failing to deliver new revelations, though they did offer some insight into the broader activities of US intelligence agencies. The timing of the Earhart release was widely seen as a diversion as the Trump administration sought to dodge releasing government files connected to Jeffrey Epstein.
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