Gary Vacin

A Sun Lakes resident who participated in the search for Amelia Earhart’s remains in 2010 will be guest speaker at the Sun Lakes Aero Club (SLAC) gathering Monday, January 16 at the Sun Lakes Country Club Mirror Room.

The session starts with coffee and camaraderie at 6:30 p.m., followed by the presentation at 7:00 p.m. The session is open to the public.

Karl Kern and two others began the month-long expedition on the remote Pacific island of Nikumaroro. They spent three weeks clearing and excavating land to try to uncover details about Earhart’s disappearance 78 years ago. They found many items that may have belonged to Earhart.

Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, disappeared over the Pacific on an around-the-world flight in 1937. There are three main theories as to what happened:

1. They crashed at sea

2. They were captured by the Japanese military and died.

3. They landed on Nikumaroro, an uninhabited coral atoll in what is now known as the Republic of Kiribati.

For more than 25 years, The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery has been testing the latter theory. The group has made 10 trips to the island to do surveys. Kern was a member of the 2010 expedition. Spokesmen for the organization say they think they have a good idea what happened to Earhart and Noonan, though they don’t know for sure. Kern will reveal some of that evidence in his SLAC presentation.

SLAC is an official organization in the Sun Lakes community. The group meets the third Monday of each month from November through April. For additional information contact Cannon Hill at 509-530-785; Gary Vacin at 298-7017; or visit the SLAC website, www.sunlakesaeroclub.org.