Trump says he’s ordered the declassification and release of all
government records on Amelia Earhart
[September 27, 2025]
By DARLENE SUPERVILLE
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump announced Friday that he has
ordered the declassification and public release of all government
records about aviator Amelia Earhart, noting that her disappearance in
1937 as she attempted to fly around the world has “captivated millions.”
Trump called her fate an “interesting story” and said people have been
asking him about declassifying and making public everything the
government has on her. Trump returned to office earlier this year
promising to declassify and release government records on several
high-profile figures, though Earhart's was not among the names
mentioned.
The Republican president's administration since has released thousands
of pages of records about President John F. Kennedy, his brother Robert
F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. All were assassinated
during the 1960s and the files revealed no blockbuster information.
Both the FBI and the National Archives and Records Administration
already have released batches of documents about Earhart. Some who have
doggedly researched her disappearance nearly 90 years ago doubt there is
much more the government has on her that it can release.
Earhart was an aviation pioneer and first woman to pilot a solo flight
across the Atlantic Ocean. She disappeared in the South Pacific while
trying to become the first woman to circumnavigate the globe.
“Amelia made it almost three quarters around the World before she
suddenly, and without notice, vanished, never to be seen again,” Trump
wrote on his social media site. “Her disappearance, almost 90 years ago,
has captivated millions. I am ordering my Administration to declassify
and release all Government Records related to Amelia Earhart, her final
trip, and everything else about her.”
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Amelia Earhart poses for photos as she arrives in Southampton,
England, after her transatlantic flight on the "Friendship" from
Burry Point, Wales, June 26, 1928. (AP Photo/File)
Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, vanished while flying from
New Guinea to Howland Island as part of her attempt to become the
first female pilot to fly around the world. She had radioed that she
was running low on fuel. The Navy searched but found no trace.
The U.S. government’s official position has been that Earhart and
Noonan went down with their plane. She was declared legally dead in
1939.
Since then, theories have abounded, with some veering into the
absurd, including abduction by aliens, or Earhart living in New
Jersey under an alias. Others speculate she and Noonan were executed
by the Japanese or died as castaways on an island.
Ric Gillespie, executive director of the International Group for
Historic Aircraft Recovery, who has studied Earhart for decades,
doubted that much more information on the famed aviator remains to
be released. He cited the document dumps by the FBI and the National
Archives.
“There's nothing still classified by the U.S. government on Amelia
Earhart,” Gillespie said in a telephone interview.
But Mindi Love Pendergraft, executive director of the Amelia Earhart
Hangar Museum, said in an email that Trump's action “is sure to
pique the interest of those dedicated to uncovering the mystery of
Earhart's disappearance.”
“If these records shed any light on Earhart's fate, it is a welcome
action for Earhart historians and enthusiasts,” she said.
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