Last Flight |
"Flying may not be all plain sailing, but the fun of it is worth the price."- Amelia Earhart |
In 1937, Amelia decided she was going to do an around-the-world flight. She was accompanied by Fred Noonan, navigator of the flight. "The first legs of the journey were easy ones." - Candace Flemming. Starting in Oakland, California, they flew to Miami, Florida, to prepare the plane for the lone flight it was about to take. From Miami, they flew through the Caribbean, to San Juan, then to Brazil, for the shortest possible hop over the Atlantic. It was the longest leg of the journey. They landed in Dakar, West Africa; then eastward across Africa, to Assab. From Assab, they were the first to make and Africa-to India flight, touching down in Karachi, India. As they stopped in Karachi, Amelia wrote many letters and notes in her logbook. One letter consisted of, "I wish you were here, so many things you would enjoy...Perhaps some day we can fly together to some remote places of the world- just for fun." From Karachi the flew to Calcutta, India then to Rangoon, Bangkok, and then Bandung, in Indonesia. Monsoon weather prevented departure from Bandung for several days. Then they took off and stopped in Darwin, Australia, they continued eastward to Lae, New Guinea. The long ocean flights were coming closer now. Before they left, they lightened the load for the upcoming flights. From Lae, they took off for Howland Island, 2200 miles away in the Pacific. They never arrived.