Amelia Earhart And Fred Noonan's Disappearances

Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan’s disappearance remains one of aviation’s enduring mysteries. Amelia Earhart is a well-known American aviator who set various groundbreaking records while flying, despite women's limitations in the twentieth century. Fred Noonan, an American navigator, is known for being Amelia’s flight partner when the best day of their lives took a tragic turn. On July 2nd, 1937, Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan embarked on their journey to fly worldwide with just one flight. They wanted to be the first people to fly around the world and set a record that they knew nobody else could set during that time. Despite the trouble that they encountered before the flight, they took off on their journey. The two aviators suddenly disappeared

The absence of clear communication protocols between Amelia Earhart and ground control heightened the situation on the flight. The flight plan and communication procedures were not standardized or well documented, leading to miscommunication and confusion between Amelia and ground control. In Masters book she states, "The absence of clear communication protocols between Earhart and ground control resulted in delays and misunderstandings, exacerbating the challenges of navigation and coordination” (473). For aviation safety, it is vital to have clear communication protocols between aircraft and ground stations. Without each step of the protocol being practiced and perfected, there is an increased chance of a tragedy, which Amelia and Fred Noonan experienced because of their issues with communication and their outdated equipment. Delays and incomplete transmissions were caused by the ground stations and Earhart’s route not being prepared to manage the long-distance communications with planes during that time. In her book, Iodice writes that “Technical glitches started immediately”

Masters stated that Amelia “flew by the seat of her pants” (273). Amelia was undoubtedly a skilled aviator, especially with the groundbreaking records that she set, but particularly over open water, she was limited in skill and experience. Ultimately, this exposed Fred and Amelia to challenges they were not used to during their previous flights. Morse code was a skill that all aviators needed to know to help guide them to their destination, but Amelia and Fred could not use it because they were not educated enough in their aviation skills to use it. Earhart and the Itasca never made two-way voice or telegraph contact, and this would have been a vital skill to have during the flight to have a smooth route. As such, Earhart and Noonan may have underestimated the challenges they would face during their fateful flight. Fatigue also played a vital role in not being well equipped to take on this challenge when they had the “normal” flights that they excelled in, but they did not fly the same number of hours each day and they had many rest days. In “HF/E Issues Involved in the Disappearance of and Search for Amelia Earhart” Hancock mentions, “This variability was important in the profile of