Social media 'solves' aviation's unsolved mysteries

The history of aviation is riddled with mysteries, but there are two which stand out—the disappearance of American aviator Amelia Earhart and her navigator in 1937, and the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 in 2014.

- By Gamini Akmeemana

Despite claims that the wreckage of both these aircraft has been discovered in recent years, nothing has been conclusively established.

Amelia Earhart's tragic disappearance

Amelia Earhart, a brave, trail-blazing pilot who followed the steps of Charles Lindbergh by making a solo transatlantic flight in 1932, set herself the formidable goal of flying around the world. She and her trusted navigator, Fred Noonan, disappeared over the Pacific in 1937 while on that epic journey.

Tantalising clues have emerged over the years regarding the Earhart mystery. In Nikumaroro Island, searchers found a woman's shoe, a bottle of skin cream, bits of plexiglass which could have come from the Electra's cockpit windows, and a number of human bones. This gave rise to the theory that both pilot and navigator survived a crash into the sea and managed to swim to the island, only to die from hunger and dehydration.

The bones did not amount to two complete skeletons, or even one. They were sent to Hawaii for lab analysis, but were lost, adding to the air of mystery.

In the late 1930s, there was intense rivalry between Japan and the United States for the Pacific Islands, and one theory suggested that, running low on fuel, Earhart landed on the Marshall Island, and was detained by the Japanese as a spy. The discovery of a magazine photograph showing a woman sitting on a pier in a Japanese harbour strengthened this theory.