Amelia Earhart footage surfaces, but not without controversy

Rare footage of Amelia Earhart, the famous pilot whose disappearance still mystifies aviation experts 80 years later, has surfaced. But like nearly everything linked to her, there is some controversy about it.

The footage was possibly shot by John Bresnik, the brother of Al Bresnik, Earhart’s personal photographer. The three-and-a-half-minute film will be released by The Paragon Agency to accompany the book Amelia Earhart’s Last Photo Shoot by Nicole Swinford.

John Bresnik’s son, also named John, said that the footage sat in his father’s office until his death in 1992. He finally decided to show the footage publicly this year. According to the Associated Press, Paragon publisher Doug Westfall said that he will donate the reel to an archive or museum.

The reel was marked “Amelia Earhart, Burbank Airport, 1937,” and definitely shows a very happy and excited Earhart. Swinford, Paragon and John Bresnik’s son believe that the footage was taken in May 1937 before she took her fatal last flight.

However, other Earhart experts believe that it was actually filmed in March 1947, notes CNN. If that’s true, then the footage actually shows Earhart posing for photos before her first attempt to fly around the world in March. That flight was abandoned in Hawaii after an accident there.

Richard Gillespie, executive director of the International Group For Historic Aircraft Recovery, told the AP that it isn't likely that Earhart did a photoshoot before she left Burbank on May 21, 1937 because she wanted to take off without publicity that time.

Earhart never made her journey around the world, but she did become the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. Her story still fascinates, as the attention this footage is getting makes clear.

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