ST. JOHN'S — A Newfoundland town is looking for answers after a life-size statue of pioneering American aviator Amelia Earhart disappeared from a municipal park on Thursday.
Don Coombs, mayor of Harbour Grace, N.L., said he was getting ready for a day of meetings when a town staff member called early in the morning to say the cherished bronze statue commemorating Earhart's successful transatlantic flight was gone.
When he got to the park to see for himself, all that remained was the stone platform upon which she had stood and the bolts that had held her in place.
"We're devastated, shocked and hurt," Coombs said in an interview. "We've lost someone in our town. She's not just a statue. We've lost someone in our province."
Earhart took off from Harbour Grace on May 20, 1932, and landed about 15 hours later in Northern Ireland, becoming the first woman to fly alone across the Atlantic Ocean.
The aviator vanished over the Pacific Ocean nearly five years later during an attempt to become the first female pilot to circumnavigate the globe.
Harbour Grace is about 40 kilometres northwest of St. John's, across Conception Bay. One of the oldest settlements in North America, it is now home to about 2,750 people.
Coombs said his staff saw surveillance video indicating two people were dropped off in the park just after midnight on Thursday. They were picked up nearly three hours later in a red SUV, Coombs said.
The missing statue was erected in 2007 to mark the 75th anniversary of Earhart's history-making flight, and the figure looked out over the airfield from which she took off. Coombs figures it weighed about 317 kilograms.
Earhart fans and flight enthusiasts from across the globe called him on Thursday to express their concern and condolences, he said.
The statue's disappearance came after someone recently stole two bronze plaques from the park. Coombs figured the plaque thieves took a good look at the Earhart statue and came back with a solid plan to take it.
"They knew what they were doing," he said. "They knew what they had to bring. Because there was no damage done to the platform that she stood on."
The Earhart statue attracted scores of tourists each summer and brought business to the community, Coombs said. The town will offer a reward to anyone that brings it back.
"She showed women that the sky's the limit," Coombs said. "A female wasn't supposed to do what she was doing. She's a pioneer for women, she's a pioneer for pilots."
In November, a statue of the late Formula One driver Gilles Villeneuve was stolen from outside a Quebec museum in his honour, and provincial police said they suspected thieves would try to melt it down to sell the metal.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 24, 2025.
Sarah Smellie, The Canadian Press
