Seattle Washington - Seattle is a city rich with aviation business and technology. Boeing has a major plant here and dozens of airlines fly in and out of the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. But our intrepid reporter, a man who wishes only to be known as Mr. X, has discovered a hidden conspiracy nestled among the tailfins. Here's his report:

After I was forced to leave Atlanta because of the story we broke together I moved to Seattle and found work for a airline service company as a maintenance engineer. What my company does is clean the exteriors and interiors of commercial airplanes, re-equip galleys, stuff like that. In October of this year the company landed the contract of a small commuter airline known as Auburn Air Express. Basically they do puddle jumper flights; Seattle to Anchorage or Seattle to San Francisco and have a small fleet of about 10 prop airplanes. We got the contract to do clean-up on them and I was assigned to service them several days a week.

A couple of weeks after I was there I was cleaning up the cockpit of one plane and came across a day planner that had been left behind the pilot's seat. I was surprised that it had the name Frank Noonan embossed on it since he is the owner of the whole airline. What's he doing flying a plane? I peeked inside and didn't see much but on the day before there was the notation "A E" marked down. The words "Fly Back" was marked down on a date 3 days later. After I was a good little employee and returned the day planner I decided to find out what the big boss man had been up to.

I did a little researching and found out that the plane had last come back from Honolulu Hawaii by way of San Francisco. That in itself was weird since the small planes Auburn used did not make regular flights to the islands but then I found out that the flight was a "executive re-routing." That basically meant that Noonan himself had authorized the flight.

So I asked around and found another maintenance guy that had seen the plane taxi up and Noonan and a real old woman get out. Now I thought I had the mystery solved. Noonan had just being using the plane to carry his Mom around. There was a major board of directors meeting the day after the flight so maybe he wanted to impress her and show what an important kinda guy he was. Just to make sure I checked up on Noonan's family tree and was surprised to find that his Mom is dead. But more interesting, I found out that his father, Fred Noonan, is listed as "missing, presumed dead." Who was Fred Noonan?

FRED WAS THE NAVIGATOR FOR AMELIA EARHART ON HER LAST TRIP!

Woah, this was big! But so far I had nothing, no physical evidence. Then I remembered that he had scheduled another flight for himself that took off tomorrow. That would be my chance.

The next day I called in sick and then got onto the airport grounds with my employee id and camera. I hid myself in some crate storage behind the Auburn Air hangers and waited.. Since I didn't know what time he was leaving I got there at midnight. By 7 am my butt was sore and I was dying for a cigarette but I was still determined to get my evidence. Then at 10 am I saw Noonan's car pull up in the Auburn lot. He helped an old woman out and lead her toward the waiting plane. This was it! I emerged from my hiding spot and got as close as I dared. As they were entering the hanger I quickly begin shooting. I could see the woman's face and knew my suspicions were correct. When I developed my prints I knew I had my evidence:

AMELIA EARHART IS ALIVE AND WELL!

Amelia Earhart at 102

That's right, you can tell it's the same woman from the 30's just by taking a look at my photos. I believe that Amelia Earhart is somehow involved at the executive level with Auburn Airlines. Maybe Fred put her on the payroll as an excuse to give her money. Or maybe he was forced to. But by who? The government? Are the rumors that Roosevelt was using her as a spy against the Japanese correct? Was her crash faked so she could find out more information for the upcoming World War? If that's the case then the government has been covering up her continued existence for over 60 years Publish this if you dare, Derek but you can't deny the truth. Don't bother trying to get in touch with me because I'm leaving this town as soon as I write you this letter.

-end report--

Mr. X did indeed send a photo along with his letter and the woman does bare a resemblance to the famed aviator. I did a little fact checking and found out the following

Amelia Earhart was born in 1897 and if she was alive today she would be 102.

If Amelia was serving in some capacity with the airline it wouldn't be the first time. In 1928 she was appointed assistant to the General Traffic manager for the company that would later be known as TWA

Earhart's last flight was on July 2nd, 1937 when she left Lae New Guinea for Howland Island in an attempt to cross the Pacific Ocean. Along with her was her navigator, Fred Noonan. She lost contact with a boat that was tracking her and was presumed to have run out of fuel. President Roosevelt spent $4 million dollars in an attempt to locate them but no body or plane debris has ever been found.

Rumors of Earhart's existence were quick to surface. During World War II some thought that she had been captured by the Japanese and forced to broadcast to American troops as "Tokyo Rose"

Frank Noonan is indeed the son of Earhart's navigator and is the owner of Auburn Airlines.

I called Auburn Air and left a message with a secretary that I wanted to speak to Mr. Noonan about the idea that he was in contact with Amelia Earhart but my call was not returned. Go figure.

sources

written letter by Mr. X

"Amelia Earhart and Her Flight To Destiny" Sharon Potter-Cobb, Aviatrix Books, 1988

photo courtesy Mr. X.