THE HERMAWAN POST
Rp14.000
Monday 6th September 2021
Where is Amelia and Fred?
Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan were reported missing on their attempt
to fly around the world. On 1st July in 1937, Amelia Earhart and Fred
Noonan had set off from Miami, USA and the following day their plane
went missing somewhere over the Pacific Ocean. Before Amelia Earhart
and Fred Noonan went missing, they were flying around the world. They
flew to South America, Africa, India, Southeast Asia and Lae in Papua
New Guinea. After that the next destination was Howland Island, a tiny
island that is managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and is a part
of Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument.The U.S.
Department of Commerce had a weather observation station and a
landing strip on the island, and the staff was ready with fuel and supplies.
Several U.S. ships, including the Coast Guard cutter Itasca, were
deployed to assist Earhart and Noonan in this difficult leg of their journey.
As their Lockheed Plane approached Howland Island, Earhart radioed
the Itasca and explained that she was low on fuel. However after some
frustrating However, after several hours of frustrating attempts, two-way
communication was only briefly established, and the Itasca was unable
to pinpoint the Lockheed’s location or offer navigational information.
Earhart circled the Itasca‘s position but was unable to sight the ship,
which was sending out miles of black smoke. She radioed “one-half hour
fuel and no landfall” and later tried to give information on her position.
Soon after, contact was lost. An intensive search of the vicinity by the
Coast Guard and U.S. Navy found no physical evidence of the fliers or
their plane. After graduating from high school, Amelia wasn't sure what
she wanted to do. She first went to the Ogontz School in Pennsylvania,
but dropped out to become a nurse's aide tending wounded soldiers from
World War I. Then she studied to become a mechanic, but soon was
back in school studying for a career in medicine. Eventually she decided
to go into medical research. That is, until she took her first plane flight.
On December 28, 1920 Amelia and her father visited an air show in
California. Amelia went on her first plane flight that day. She later said
that "I knew I had to fly" as soon as the plane was just a few hundred
feet off the ground. Amelia worked hard and, together with some money
from her mother, she was able to pay for flying lessons. Eventually she
purchased her own plane. A bright yellow airplane she nicknamed the
"Canary". She also got her pilot's license and set a new altitude record
for female pilots of 14,000 feet.