Whatever her flaws as a pilot, the crash may have been due to her navigator, Fred Noonan, underestimating head winds and leaving the plane well short of its destination, tiny Howland Island, and searching desperately for it as the fuel ran down. The Navy vessel waiting for her at Howland put up a stream of thick black smoke that should have been visible for miles, suggesting she was way short of the island. There was panic in her voice during her last transmissions to the vessel, called the Itasca. She could not receive transmissions, most likely because her transmitting antenna was damaged as she went down the runway at Lae, just before lifting off, an event caught on film.
Whatever her flaws as a pilot, the crash may have been due to her navigator, Fred Noonan, underestimating head winds and leaving the plane well short of its destination, tiny Howland Island, and searching desperately for it as the fuel ran down. The Navy vessel waiting for her at Howland put up a stream of thick black smoke that should have been visible for miles, suggesting she was way short of the island. There was panic in her voice during her last transmissions to the vessel, called the Itasca. She could not receive transmissions, most likely because her transmitting antenna was damaged as she went down the runway at Lae, just before lifting off, an event caught on film.
Yeah - that's it - blame the crash on the imbecilic man navigator. Never put the blame on that woman.
Earharts attempt to fly around the world was the biggest story since Lindbergh. She was attempting to fly to Howland Island, at the aircraft's max range. There was a ship at the island transmitting a homing beacon. But radio navigation was chancy back then; the ship could hear her but she couldn't find their signal. She ran out of gas while running a grid pattern, searching for the island visually. The ship heard her final desperate calls, which provide the only clues to the crash site.
I think you don't have a clue about what aviation was like in the 30s. Or how hard it was to navigate over a large body of water where there are few landmarks to guide you. Not even sure how well mapped the Pacific Ocean was at the time.
Come on how hard is it to map the Pacific Ocean. “Look there’s the water” She should have known where it was.
turns out they had mapped it pretty well already, using boats. They had also figured out how to use the curvature of Earth to get places faster.
That's why many planes fly in knots, and long flights seem to be going the wrong direction at first.
She was great, bold, skilled, and fearless. The difficulties related to trying to fly that far over the ocean with the technology of her day made her attempt very hard. Her spirit in making the attempt was incredible.
The navigation technique used was called bearing off. They deliberately flew and dead reckoned at a bearing that was say off to the west of their known destination so that after a set time and distance flying they knew that the island they were looking for was somewhere to their east. They then did a box or grid pattern looking for their destination. Nobody is sure but due to the extreme distance involved and the limits of her available fuel she didn't make it.
She was also flying in terrible weather conditions. You can be the best pilot in the world and still crash under similar circumstances.
She leaves to fly the Atlantic ocean and only has half a tank of gas?!? She didn't check her fuel?
Huh? Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan were flying across the Pacific Ocean when their plane disappeared and they were presumed "lost as sea."
Specifically, Earhart's and Noonan's plane disappeared during a flight that originated in Lae, New Guinea. They were flying towards a tiny, uninhabited Pacific atoll 2,500 miles to the east called Howland Island, where they'd planned to land and refuel.
Earhart and Noonan had already crossed the Atlantic a couple of weeks before during the first phase of their attempt to fly around the world. After they successfully crossed the Altantic, they flew across Africa, South Asia and the Indian Ocean.
Earhart and Noonan weren't anywhere near the Atlantic when they vanished.
Serious. People call her a trailblazer, but I don’t know. She also had a navigator (a dude) who crashed with her. I never heard of the poor b@stard until today. No one gives a damn about him.
we should start a thread to keep track of retarded questions on letsrun.
Whatever her flaws as a pilot, the crash may have been due to her navigator, Fred Noonan, underestimating head winds and leaving the plane well short of its destination, tiny Howland Island, and searching desperately for it as the fuel ran down. The Navy vessel waiting for her at Howland put up a stream of thick black smoke that should have been visible for miles, suggesting she was way short of the island. There was panic in her voice during her last transmissions to the vessel, called the Itasca. She could not receive transmissions, most likely because her transmitting antenna was damaged as she went down the runway at Lae, just before lifting off, an event caught on film.
Yeah - that's it - blame the crash on the imbecilic man navigator. Never put the blame on that woman.
They had sufficient gas to get from the takeoff point to Howland Island, their destination. However, Howland Island is just 1 1/4 miles long, and they never made visual contact with it. A navigation error got them slightly off (there was an error of the position of Howland Island on the chart they were using), and although radio signals indicated they were close, they probably ran out of fuel while still searching and crash landed in the sea.
Yeah - that's it - blame the crash on the imbecilic man navigator. Never put the blame on that woman.
They had sufficient gas to get from the takeoff point to Howland Island, their destination. However, Howland Island is just 1 1/4 miles long, and they never made visual contact with it. A navigation error got them slightly off (there was an error of the position of Howland Island on the chart they were using), and although radio signals indicated they were close, they probably ran out of fuel while still searching and crash landed in the sea.
How the hell do we know what charts she used if the plane’s at the bottom of the damn ocean
They had sufficient gas to get from the takeoff point to Howland Island, their destination. However, Howland Island is just 1 1/4 miles long, and they never made visual contact with it. A navigation error got them slightly off (there was an error of the position of Howland Island on the chart they were using), and although radio signals indicated they were close, they probably ran out of fuel while still searching and crash landed in the sea.
How the hell do we know what charts she used if the plane’s at the bottom of the damn ocean
Because other copies of the charts repeat the error. The chart that was made had the location of Howland Island about seven miles off. That would be enough to make it impossible to see when heading straight into the rising sun as Earhart and Noonan were. It's known the were very close, and they likely ran out of fuel when running as search pattern...
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