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Naval Aviation News, Sept-Oct, 2004 by Eric Beheim

The disappearance of Amelia Earhart 67 years ago set into motion one of the largest naval air search operations conducted up to that time. A reexamination of long-forgotten reports, message traffic and other historical documents has revealed new evidence which suggests that the searchers might have been closer than they realized to solving one of the greatest mysteries of all time.

On the morning of 2 July 1937, the Coast Guard cutter Itasca was on station off Howland Island in the Pacific, midway between Lae, New Guinea, and Hawaii. Since approximately 0245, Itasca's radio room had been receiving messages from an inbound airplane that had taken off from Lae the previous morning. On board were Amelia Earhart Putnam and her navigator, Frederick Noonan, engaged in an around-the-world flight that had begun in Oakland, Calif., on 20 May.

Earhart's aircraft was a Lockheed twin-engine Electra that had been modified for long-distance flying. The world flight had been planned as a series of legs, each one requiring 20 hours or less of flying time. The 2,500-mile flight from Lae to Howland was the longest leg of the journey. It would require Noonan to find an island that was only 1.5 by 0.7 miles, with no prominent landmarks. His plan was to use celestial navigation to keep the flight on course until it was within range of Itasca. The plane and the ship would then use their radio direction-finding equipment to locate one another and determine the specific course needed to reach Howland safely.

But things didn't work out as planned. Itasca's attempts to call Earhart and establish two-way communications were not successful. Nor was Itasca able to take bearings on Earhart's transmissions. Some 20 hours after Earhart took off from Lae, the last transmission was received from the world flight. After many unsuccessful attempts to establish communication with the Electra, Itasca got underway at 1040 local time and began search operations.

Word that Earhart's flight was overdue reached Rear Admiral Orin G. Murfin, Commandant of the 14th Naval District based in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Lieutenant Warren W. Harvey was dispatched in a PBY flying boat to Howland Island to assist with the search. Unfortunately, this flight was later forced to abort and return to Pearl Harbor due to adverse weather conditions encountered en route. On 3 July, the battleship Colorado (BB 45) and her three catapult-launched O3U-3 Corsair floatplanes left Pearl Harbor for Howland.

At NAS San Diego, Calif., the aircraft carrier Lexington (CV 2) was ordered to get underway. In less than 24 hours, the necessary stores and operating spares for a four-week cruise were gathered and loaded on board. When Lexington left San Diego on 5 July, she had embarked 62 planes from six squadrons, including Bombing Squadron 4, Torpedo Squadron 2, and Scouting Squadrons 2, 3, 41 and 42.

The Navy had concluded that after failing to find Howland, Earhart and Noonan had turned southeast in an attempt to reach the nearest land. Accordingly, Colorado was directed to proceed to and search the Phoenix Islands. Beginning on 7 July, Colorado's three aircraft under of the command of Lieutenant John O. Lambrecht flew search operations. A flyover was completed at each island and a landing was made in the lagoon at Hull, the only island of the group that was inhabited. The search lasted four days and covered some 25,490 square miles.

On 12 July, Lexington and her destroyers arrived and took over the search, which now shifted away from the Phoenix Islands to the open waters north and west of Howland. In all, Lexington's aircrews searched some 151,556 square miles of ocean without success.

On 18 July, the search was officially called off. The general opinion was that the plane had probably run out of gas, gone down at sea and sunk without a trace.

The Search Continues

In 1988, two retired aviators approached The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) with a new hypothesis about the Earhart disappearance. It was their belief that stronger than normal winds had caused the Electra to drift off course so that it ended up south of Howland Island. When the island was not sighted visually and when radio bearings could not be obtained from Itasca, Earhart and Noonan had turned southeast. The two islands closest to this course were McKean and Gardner (later renamed Nikumaroro.) In all likelihood, the Earhart world flight had ended up on one of these islands. Since this was essentially the same reasoning that had led the Navy to send Colorado to search the Phoenix Islands, TIGHAR's network of volunteer investigators began a reexamination of historical records to look for facts that would support the theory of an island landing.

In the National Archives they found the official report of Colorado's commanding officer, who said, "No one was seen on either Gardner Island or McKean Island" and "no dwellings appeared on Gardner or any other signs of inhabitation." However, in the library of the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., they found a copy of the report submitted by Lt. Lambrecht to the Bureau of Aeronautics Weekly News Letter, known today as Naval Aviation News. Lambrecht said, "Gardner is a typical example of a South Sea atoll, a narrow, circular strip of land surrounding a large lagoon. Most of this island is covered with tropical vegetation with, here and there, a grove of coconut palms. Here, signs of recent habitation were clearly visible but repeated circling and zooming failed to elicit any answering wave from possible inhabitants, and it was finally taken for granted that none were there." In his report, Lambrecht also speculated, "It is not hard to believe that a forced landing could have been accomplished [on Gardner] with no more damage than a good barrier crash or a good wetting."