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Judge Tosses Some Claims in Earhart Wreckage Case

09/26/2013

(AP) -- It's been more than 75 years since aviation pioneer and Atchison native Amelia Earhart's Lockheed Electra vanished somewhere over the South Pacific yet the mystery of her disappearance made waves Wednesday halfway around the world in a Wyoming court.

A federal judge in Casper dismissed racketeering and negligence allegations in a lawsuit claiming an aircraft preservation group had found the wreckage of the plane but did not disclose it so it could raise more money for searches. However, the judge did leave fraud and misrepresentation claims intact and that portion of the legal action will proceed.

The lawsuit filed by Riverside, Wyoming resident Timothy Mellon claims the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery of Delaware and its executive director, Richard E. Gillespie, accepted more than $1 million from him last year to search for the plane after discovering the wreckage in 2010. The defendants deny finding the wreckage.

Earhart became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic in 1932. She was trying to become the first female to circle the globe when she and her navigator disappeared in 1937.

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