(MENAFN- Live Mint) Days after President Donald Trump ordered the declassification and public release of all government files related to Amelia Earhart, the FBI has directed its employees in Washington, DC, and New York to search for any records connected to the aviator's disappearance.

According to two law enforcement sources quoted by CNN, employees in Washington DC and New York were asked to search their workstations and any digital media records. They have been asked to submit all records pertaining to disappearance of the aviator by Wednesday, October 15.

The message to the FBI employees read:“Per a priority request from the Executive Office of the President of the United States, please search any areas where papers or physical media records may be stored, to include both open or closed cases, for records responsive to Amelia Earhart.”

Who was Amelia Earhart? Amelia Earhart disappeared in 1937 while attempting to become the first woman to fly around the world, and was declared lost at sea after a 16-day search.

Amelia Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, vanished while flying from New Guinea to Howland Island. Before she vanished, she had radioed that she was running low on fuel.

The Navy searched but found no trace.

The US government has long maintained that Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, perished when their plane went down, and she was declared legally dead in 1939.

Earlier, Donald Trump announced that he had ordered the declassification and public release of all government records related to aviator Amelia Earhart, saying her 1937 disappearance during an attempted round-the-world flight 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.

In a post on his social media site, Trump wrote,“Amelia made it almost three quarters around the World before she suddenly, and without notice, vanished, never to be seen again.”

“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.”

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.

(With agency inputs)

MENAFN09102025007365015876ID1110173314