Amelia Earhart: The Mystery Solved

by Elgen M. Long, Marie K. Long

The first authoritative account of the final days of Amelia Earhart's ill-fated journey confronts some of the myths surrounding her disappearance and speculates on her fate. Reprint. 17,500 first printing.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, History, Aviation, American History, True Story, Historical

320 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1999

Reviews

[Jill H. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had hoped that this book would be an in-depth look at the aviatrix heroine, Amelia Earhart's disappearance during her around the world flight in 1937; however I certainly didn't want the depth that it provided. If you are not a pilot or a navigator, 2/3 of this book will be meaningless. It illustrates every map setting, gasoline consumption, air speed, dead reckonings and other technical terms that slow the narrative down to a crawl and is confusing to the casual reader.

And the mystery solved? Nothing new here......Earhart and her navigator Noonan simply ran out of fuel and crashed into the ocean. The author posits that the airplane lies in 17,000 feet of water in an area about nine miles north of Howland Island (which was their destination). The ocean floor is sandy which probably has covered the craft which makes it almost impossible to detect on sonar. And this is only the author's assumption as to where the airplane can be found.

I put the book aside once but decided to finish it anyway. I was sorely disappointed but a pilot/navigator might find this book useful and understandable. I was just bored.

[Leslie Goddard · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is essentially a tediously detailed, blow-by-blow account of Amelia Earhart's 1937 attempted around-the-world flight, packed with details, all aimed presumably at finally solving the mystery.

And apparently they do solve it to their satisfaction, although I'm not entirely sure I know after finishing the book, what their solution is exactly. Their discussion of their solution is so mired in technical details requiring navigational expertise that I understood very little beyond the basic idea that when you calculate a mind-boggling number of details about wind speed, fuel consumption, altitude, navigational technique, communication specifics, you discover she ran out of fuel and crashed somewhere within 100 miles west of Howland Island. And if someone would just go down there and look, they will find the Electra ("academic and commercial organizations are available to help with a wide array of useful know-how" and "expert aid from competent individuals can help keep the costs down," they helpfully, and rather pompously, announce).

I'm not sure who the intended reader is. Certainly not a historian or even a general reader with an interest in biography or history. Without a fairly solid background in navigational techniques and aviation radio technology, I was frequently lost. Terms are tossed out with absolutely no definitions for a non-expert -- the "landing gear's oleo strut extension," the Bendix receiver's "superheterodyne design" with "five frequency-band numbers." What?

I know that many consider this book to be the definitive source on what happened (at least up to the time of this writing). I just wish I understood enough of the book to agree with that assessment.

[Ella Schilling · Rating 4 out of 5]

While not very entertaining, this book is very impressive with its sheer depth of research and dedication. And I hardly doubt anyone could have been more qualified to write it than Amelia herself!

Things I have learned from this nonfiction history book:

If you are a pilot:
Don’t fly a crappy plane that malfunctions every 2 hours

Be fluent in Morse code

Arrange ahead of time when communications will take place, and avoid time-zone confusion

It is a tragic but inspiring account of Amelia Earhart. What could’ve made me rate it higher might include:

Adding more human aspects and emotion, such as:
What was the world’s reaction? Her husband’s?

Explain the various conspiracy theories, yes, even the outlandish ones, such as: shady Japanese government agencies, and giant carnivorous crabs

What did she eat and why? What was the lavatory like?

Overall, this 320 page book is incredibly thorough and remarkably succeeds in convincing the reader beyond a shadow of a doubt what truly happened to Amelia Earhart. Kudos! No easy feat :)

[Christian Petrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finding a book to read can come from any source. For this one, it was in the comment section of news story about the search for Amelia Earhart. The person leaving the comment said this was the definitive answer on what happened to Amelia Earhart, that the story about her landing safely on an island was false. After reading this I agree.

There is not much to spoil on this story since you know she disappears. What makes this book stand out is the detail the author gives in describing her last flight. This ranges from the equipment installed to the headwinds based on weather reports.

For some you might get lost within the details. The author presents a lot of detail. Though this is key, because it helps to support his theory and where the plane landed.

Overall it is a riveting story. Since you know she won't make it, while reading it you start to see when fate started to lay the foundations for events leading to her disappearance. Even though you know the ending, the details bring the time period alive, and brings you into the story.

If you are interested in history, and/or Amelia Earhart, I would recommend reading this.

Side Note: Though finding a paperback copy might be hard. The article I read was linked through Digg, and the remaining copies went fast. In fact I missed it the first time and checked on it a few weeks later on Amazon, another two copies were made available.

[Tabby · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really informative book that allowed me to learn a lot more about Earhart and her around the world flight that I didn’t know before. There was a lot of technical information that I had trouble understanding, because I’m not a pilot, but it also had a lot of other great information. I had no idea this was her second attempt at her world flight. I also didn’t realize how many issues she had with the Electra during her around the world flight. I learned that because of some of the communication issues encountered during her flight to Howland Island they made the rule where all times will be in GMT. It’s sad that these important changes always occur because of unfortunate events. Overall it was an informative and interesting read that answers a lot of questions, but also still creates new ones. However, I don’t think the mystery has been solved since we still don’t know what fully happened to the Electra, Earhart and Noonan or where the plane lays.

[John · Rating 1 out of 5]

The mystery is not solved. Do not bother to read this book.

[Mark · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dull

This has to be one of the most boring books I've ever read. How the Longs can make such an exciting and groundbreaking journey so uninspiring and lacking any trepidation is beyond me. If I were an insomniac, I would have read this book with great glee in the knowledge that I would fall asleep within 5 pages.

Repetitive radio frequency bands are scattered throughout the book, at far too higher, a frequency (see what I did there!). The title is a misnomer as there is really no mystery to solve. The plethora of errors to do with the last flight are fascinating yet are told in a boring narrative.

Both Earhart and her navigator Noonan were obviously innovative yet complex people. However, the book fails to put across any sense of their character. Instead, the facts portrayed in the book only point to arrogance and/or ignorance of both parties.

Earhart's life up to the final flight is condensed into one chapter, making it difficult to gauge the origin of her drive and the reasons for her choice of pilot innovator. Noonan's early life is ignored, and the fact he got married just before the fateful flight is covered in the text by one sentence.

There are so many missed opportunities in this book to write an exciting and stimulating narrative of the Electra's pioneering flight. Instead, the book is full of radio wavelengths that are repeated ad infinitum.

[Amy Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was great! Yes, a lot of info details, no it's not a romantic retelling of her life. It is a meticulously researched examination of what went wrong and why she disappeared without a trace when she was SO CLOSE!!!

So many details went wrong. So many people made assumptions, and they lived in a time when long-distance communications were relatively archaic and local jurisdictional rules made things complicated. As you read, you see the small mistakes stacking up and it almost staggers the mind to know what is coming and why.

She and Fred Noonan were so brave, they were experts in their fields, and they should have made it. If the maps were right, they would have made it even if the comms hadn't turned out to be a huge disaster. In a big way, this book validates Earhart and Noonan and how stellar they were on the entire flight.

[Clair Keizer · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very fact-filled, technical read. The Longs demonstrate their knowledge and experience as aviators and historians to present their theory in a very persuasive manner. It's difficult to call this enjoyable time spent reading "Amelia Earhart: The Mystery Solved," but one can't help but come away impressed and believing in this point of view of the disappearance of this amazing woman of history.

[Erik · Rating 4 out of 5]

While the subtitle "The Mystery Solved" is... let's say, aspirational, this is still the best tick-tock of all the details and sequence of events.

Combine it with datelinetheory.com and you've basically got the picture. You might also add TIGHAR's white papers on the loss of the ventral HF antenna.

[Elise · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF @ 56 pages.

Agree with other reviewers, this book is far too technical for anybody who does not have some sort of a background in aviation. Lots of navigation/radio/plane jargon with no explanations. Not for the casually interested reader.

Credit to the authors for compiling a very detailed and factual recollection of Amelia Earhart's story.

[Tine Kristensen · Rating 2 out of 5]

A dreadfully long account of wind speeds, fuel consumption and radio wave lengths that I frankly understood very little of and struggled hard to stay awake through.

[Jennifer Hopson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hard going

[Steve Van Slyke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although the style of writing is very good and does not get in the way of the story, it is likely that the book will be most welcomed by readers with a background in aviation, navigation, or radio technology and procedures, because that is what constitutes the bulk of it. Those more interested in the personalities involved and their relationships may want to look elsewhere.

The authors are eminently qualified to write on this topic since one of them was a pilot/navigator during the era when the methods of navigation and radio communications used by Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan were still in use. In fact, it seems as though there is an unspoken bond between that author and Noonan. It seems at times that the author imputes more to Noonan's actions and abilities than may even have been humanly possible at the time.

For example, there are assumptions made about celestial position fixes taken, or sun lines of positions that were taken that were never reported via radio and can only be created by drawing conclusions about other circumstances that are assumptions in themselves. For example a 1622GCT celestial (stars & planets) fix is reported as fact. But in the notes we find that it is assumed based on Earhart's radio report that she saw a ship about that time. The author assumes that ship to have been the Mytrlebank en route to Nauru because it was conveniently located close to their intended track, although there could have been other ships in the general area at the same time. The author then adds in the note the fact that Earhart subsequently reported that she was 200 miles from Howland Island (their destination) in order to make the backward inference that Noonan took a celestial fix at about the time they saw a ship in order for her to be able to make that report. In the text the fix is stated as fact and subsequently referred to as same several times.

The fact that the authors are so well qualified to speak on the subject, and present their ideas in a compelling manner that suggest “that's what happened” rather than “that's what might have happened” make it all the more risky that readers might accept their accounts as the only reasonable explanation. What if the ship Earhart saw was not the Myrtlebank, but instead another ship further to the south?

Still, I think they make a very good case for the “null hypothesis”, that is that the Electra crashed somewhere within a 100-mile radius of Howland, but I wish they had inserted a few more “mights” and “may haves” to make it clearer when they were stating assumptions rather than facts. The only salient facts are that neither Earhart nor Noonan sighted Howland Island in time to land there, and that none of those observers on the Coast Guard cutter Itasca or on Howland Island ever saw Earhart's Lockheed Electra. So, what we do know, with relative certainty, is that they did not go down close to Howland Island.

The real burden of proof is on those with other theories; that Earhart managed to land the plane elsewhere. As Carl Sagan said, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. So until someone comes up with either the Electra or DNA from Earhart or Noonan, the mystery will remain unsolved but with the "null hypothesis" the leading candidate.

Anyone seriously interested in what might have happened to Earhart should read this. On that basis, I am sure it will be enjoyed.

[Kathy Meulen Ellison · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been on an Amelia Earhart kick lately ever since I read Amelia Lost by Candace Fleming. Here I thought that I had learned everything that there was to know about this brilliant flyer by reading lots of biographies of her as a child. She is definitely a person that people use with children to celebrate all kinds of different values.

But Candace Fleming and also the Longs' book paints a somewhat different picture and more complex picture of the woman. After reading both, there is little doubt in my mind that she was incredibly brave and an amazing risk taker and definitely knew how to fly a plane long distances. One of the more challenging aspects of long distance flying was figuring out how to make the fuel last and there were things that a pilot could do to "lean" the mixture and she seemed quite adept at that.

This book by Marie K. Long and Elgen Long, who was a former flyer who often had to fly over Howland Island when he was in the Navy, reveals something that I think is shocking.

She didn't know Morse code. And her navigator didn't either!

Maybe that isn't so shocking to you. After all, Earhart had a radio and did communicate with ground radio stations using her voice almost all the way around the world. But here's the problem. The Itasca, which was the Naval ship tasked with helping her to find and land on Howland Island, her two-mile wide Pacific Island refueling stop, assumed that she did and they had a plan to help her use her radio detection finder to locate it using a Morse code frequency. Even days after she disappeared, many people in the Navy still tried to communicate with her using Morse code.

In this book, Elgen and Marie Long have come up with a solution to the mystery of Amelia's disappearance that makes sense to them based on what they know about her radio, her fuel reserves, and the weather on that day and they make a very compelling scientific argument about where we can find Amelia today.

The book was published several years ago and, so far, no one seems to have taken them up on looking for her in the place where her plane might be.

The book was sometimes a bit of a slog because of the amount of technical information that has to be shared in order for the final solution to make sense but I was immersed in it, especially learning more about how challenging it was to attempt to fly in and out of all the different countries that she had to visit. There were times when she had to be concerned with outrunning a typhoon or how soggy a landing strip was. There were times when she had to be concerned with how to get a part to fix her plane before she could take off again.

Adventurous and will shine a light on the real Amelia Earhart, who might be a bit different from the Earhart that we think we know.

[e.West Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Elgen Long and wife Marie have certainly put in the time and effort to understand the loss of Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan. The result is a detailed travelogue of the second (and last) world flight of AE, plus Elgen's extensively explained theory of her loss; e.g. ran out of fuel west of Howland Island, ditched and sank.

Completely believable theory, that. But the Longs do not deal with the spate of alternate theories, probably by design, but the level of certainty for an uncertain event smacks of hubris, but there you are.

There is a curious lack of involvement of Amelia in the entire process, strange as that may sound; like she was a passenger somehow. This is probably the Longs not wishing to tarnish her rep.

And there other theories that bear mentioning, for instance the theory that she turned south and landed on Gardner Island; that she was imprisoned by the Japanese; that she somehow took up life as an obscure housewife. But this is an essential book for any Amelia follower.

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is filled with a great deal of flying data, salted in between the narrative passages, including biographical information, about Amelia Earhart's second (and final) attempt to fly around the world. The title I feel is somewhat misleading with the words "The Mystery Solved." In my opinion, they mystery is not, and will not, be solved until the actual plane is located. However, the authors have compiled compelling theory based on all data available that might just pinpoint the exact location of Earhart and her plane. The final paragraphs speculate how it might be found, what the cost to locate the plane, etc. I did enjoy this book, despite the amount of technical data, which pilots would certainly understand better than I, but the way it was written should not deter anyone from reading it.

[George · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another book about Amelia Earhart, my second in recent times. This one is considered a primary source on her disappearance. It covers only her round-the-world flight....it postulates the simple solution; the Electra ran out of gas and went down in the Pacific ocean within 100 miles of Howland, Island on July 2, 1937. Why? Lots of reasons; radio incompatibility and training, communication miscommunication and the fact that Howland Is. was plotted six miles off its actual location on the navigator's charts. The author, a career pilot, suggests a search just a few miles West of Howland using deep water surveillance technology available in the 21st century.

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story itself was interesting enough, but a lot of the technical details weren't explained very well and were thus confusing (and at times tedious). I was mainly reading for a biography of Amelia Earhart, which I got to a degree, though a lot of the early details were breezed over. There's extensive information on the parts of her trip around the world that she did complete; in fact, that's what most of the book comprises. The extensive research on the part of the authors is commendable, but whether the mystery is actually solved remains to be seen.

[Wendy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well researched but a bit on the dry side. Chock full of technical details, such as how many gallons of gas were taken on at this stop, which parts were repaired or replaced, etc. It sounds like some confusion on the time zone being used, and an unfamiliarity with the radio equipment contributed to the plane not reaching Howland Island and crashing when it eventually ran out of fuel.
I don't know about "The Mystery Solved" - I don't think there was a real mystery as to what happened. If you are looking for details that may have contributed to it, this book is for you.

[Anne Vaughan · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first part of the book is interesting. It explains how Amelia got started in flying and some of the records she set. The trip around the world was drawn out and took an effort to get all the way through it. And while they present theories of where the plane came down, the title is a bit of a stretch to say The Mystery Solved. The miscommunication among the guard ship radio operators and crew, the plane's communication capabilities, and the lack of Morse Code knowledge of Amelia and Fred does present a good case study. Amelia's skill and courage is something to admire.

[Tbfrank · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very well written and remarkably researched. Definitely brought to life an event that occurred over 70 years ago. Significant analysis and insights as to what most likely happened on Amelia's final flight.

[Barbara Schultz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book some time ago. Long provides the reader with an interesting perspective on AE's disappearance. By concentrating most of the book on her final days, I didn't become bored with another biography about Amelia. [Endorsed by Earhart]

[Katherine Thérèse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating read. Explains difficult concepts involving radio transmissions, navigation, etc in simple language. Also shows just how difficult flying was back then; and makes AE's accomplishments all the more impressive.

[Shawna · Rating 4 out of 5]

it ok

[Cassandra Javier · Rating 2 out of 5]

While it is choc-ful of facts about the beloved Ms. Earhart, it failed to solve anything. Not that I'm expecting anything to be solved. But, it's still a good read, so yeah you could check it out.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick read for anyone who loves aviation and/or history. Hard to put down.

[Aidan Beauregard · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting read, I had to read this book for my classes' book club but I found it okay. I thought if it more as a flight log then a biography but still, it served the purpose!

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this book, it was so good and insightful.

[M · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the analytical efforts related to the navagation.