Amelia Earhart was only the 16th woman in the enter world to be given a pilot’s license. She became famous in 1928 when she became the first woman to fly across the entire Atlantic Ocean, but she was also famous for being the first person to fly over both the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean as well.
Other than her great accomplishments as an airplane pilot, Amelia Earhart is also known because she disappeared during her last expedition. She had planned on circumnavigating the entire globe at the equator. She knew that she would not be the first person known for flying around the planet, but she would have been the first to do it at the equator.
In order to accomplish this feat, Earhart gathered a crew of three men – Fred Noonan, Paul Mantz, and Captain Harry Manning. She had a reason for choosing each person. Manning, for instance, was the captain of the ship that she was on when she returned home from Europe in 1928. Mantz was a stunt pilot in Hollywood and he served as Earhart’s technical advisor. Noonan had a great deal of experience in flight and marine navigation which Earhart felt would be useful during her expedition.
Earhart planned on starting in Oakland, CA and flying west to Hawaii. The group would then fly across the Pacific until it reached Australia. From there, the crew had planned to fly across India and then to Africa. From Africa, it would fly to Florida and then return to its starting point in California. The expedition began on March 17, 1937. The first leg took off with no problems, although there were a few minor issues as they flew across the Pacific. They landed safely in Hawaii and stayed there for three days. When they began to take off for the next leg of the trip, something went wrong. Earhart lost control of the plane on the runway and damaged it severely.
Trying to find funding for a new flight and the delay of the expedition was stressful on Earhart. By the time they got the plane repaired, their original plans had to change due to changing weather patterns and changes in the wind. When she left on the second leg, two crew members – Mantz and Manning – had to back out due to various issues.
The new flight went from California to Miami on June 1. It then went towards South America and then Africa. It flew across the Indian Ocean and landed in New Guinea on June 29, 1937 after completing more than 20,000 miles of the journey. It still had about 7,000 miles to go over the Pacific Ocean. But while in New Guinea, Earhart came down with dysentery which lasted several days. The last part of the ill-fated journey began on July 2. The last time anyone heard any correspondence from Earhart and Noonan was during the morning of July 3, 1937. Credible theories state that Earhart had inaccurate maps which took them off course. Both Noonand and Earhart disappeared.
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