The search for Amelia Earhart has shifted from the South Seas to the wilds of Newfoundland and there’s a total of $25,000 in rewards being offered. Police and the Canadian province’s scrap dealers are urging anyone who has seen the 700 pound bronze sculpture of one of the world’s most famous pilots to report it immediately so it can be returned to its plinth at Harbour Grace. The life-sized likeness was commissioned in 2007 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Earhart’s solo crossing of the Atlantic, which launched from the tiny seaside town that is within a few miles of the closest point between North America and Europe. It was stolen in the early morning of April 24.
The statue was sculpted by Luben Boykov and is worth an estimated $200,000 as a work of art. As scrap metal its melted down value is about $2,000. As an historical touchstone, it’s value is inestimable according to Kim Winsor, an Air Canada pilot and co-chair of the Canadian chapter of the Ninety-Nines, the female pilot group that Earhart founded in 1933 and served as its first chair. “Devastating. Speechless. So sad,” Winsor told CBC. “You know, the Town of Harbour Grace has done such a fantastic job preserving aviation history in Newfoundland and the history of Amelia Earhart, and recognizing what a pioneer she was in aviation. So it’s heartbreaking.”
The theft also hit home for Don Drew, whose metal recycling company is one of the few places in Newfoundland and Labrador that could melt it down. He’s turning up the heat on the thieves by putting up $10,000 in reward money. “We want them caught. We want them convicted, we want them to serve time for what they have done,” Drew said. “This is a hit on this entire province… we’re proud of our history. And in this one action, it has affected all of that.” Meanwhile the airfield itself (CHG2), which was created by the enterprising folks of Harbour Grace in 1927 expressly for the purpose, launched about 40 transatlantic flight attempts between 1927 and 1937. It’s still in service with a grass strip of about 2,000 feet.
