Radio signals

Earhart in the Electra cockpit, c. 1936

During Earhart and Noonan's approach to Howland Island the Itasca received strong and
clear voice transmissions from Earhart identifying as KHAQQ but she apparently was unable
to hear voice transmissions from the ship. Signals from the ship would also be used for
direction finding, implying that the aircraft's direction finder was also not functional.
The first calls, routine reports stating the weather as cloudy and overcast, were received at
2:45 and just before 5 am on July 2. These calls were broken up by static, but at this point the
aircraft would still be a long distance from Howland.
[112]

At 6:14 am another call was received stating the aircraft was within 200 miles (320 km), and
requested that the ship use its direction finder to provide a bearing for the aircraft. Earhart
began whistling into the microphone to provide a continual signal for them to home in on.
[113]

It was at this point that the radio operators on the Itasca realized that their RDF system could
not tune in the aircraft's 3015 kHz frequency; radioman Leo Bellarts later commented that he
"was sitting there sweating blood because I couldn't do a darn thing about it." A similar call
asking for a bearing was received at 6:45 am, when Earhart estimated they were 100 miles
(160 km) out.
[114]

At 7:42 am Earhart radioed "We must be on you, but cannot see youbut gas is running low.
Have been unable to reach you by radio. We are flying at 1,000 feet." Her 7:58 am
transmission said she couldn't hear the Itasca and asked them to send voice signals so she
could try to take a radio bearing. This transmission was reported by the Itasca as the loudest
possible signal, indicating Earhart and Noonan were in the immediate area. They couldn't
send voice at the frequency she asked for, so Morse code signals were sent instead. Earhart
acknowledged receiving these but said she was unable to determine their direction.
[115]

In her last known transmission at 8:43 am Earhart broadcast "We are on the line 157 337. We
will repeat this message. We will repeat this on 6210 kilocycles. Wait." However, a few
moments later she was back on the same frequency (3105 kHz) with a transmission which
was logged as a "questionable": "We are running on line north and south."
[116]
Earhart's
transmissions seemed to indicate she and Noonan believed they had reached Howland's
charted position, which was incorrect by about five nautical miles (10 km). The Itasca used
her oil-fired boilers to generate smoke for a period of time but the fliers apparently did not
see it. The many scattered clouds in the area around Howland Island have also been cited as a
problem: their dark shadows on the ocean surface may have been almost indistinguishable
from the island's subdued and very flat profile.
Whether any post-loss radio signals were received from Earhart and Noonan remains
controversial. If transmissions were received from the Electra, most if not all were weak and
hopelessly garbled. Earhart's voice transmissions to Howland were on 3105 kHz, a frequency
restricted to aviation use in the United States by the FCC.
[N 18]
This frequency was not
thought to be fit for broadcasts over great distances. When Earhart was at cruising altitude
and midway between Lae and Howland (over 1,000 miles (1,600 km) from each) neither
station heard her scheduled transmission at 0815 GCT.
[118]
Moreover, the 50-watt transmitter
used by Earhart was attached to a less-than-optimum-length V-type antenna.
[119][120][N 19]

The last voice transmission received on Howland Island from Earhart indicated she and
Noonan were flying along a line of position (taken from a "sun line" running on 157337
degrees) which Noonan would have calculated and drawn on a chart as passing through
Howland.
[121][N 20]
After all contact was lost with Howland Island, attempts were made to
reach the flyers with both voice and Morse code transmissions. Operators across the Pacific
and the United States may have heard signals from the downed Electra but these were
unintelligible or weak.
[122][N 21]

Some of these reports of transmissions were later determined to be hoaxes but others were
deemed authentic. Bearings taken by Pan American Airways stations suggested signals
originating from several locations, including Gardner Island.
[123][124]
It was noted at the time
that if these signals were from Earhart and Noonan, they must have been on land with the
aircraft since water would have otherwise shorted out the Electra's electrical system.
[125][N
22][126][N 23]
Sporadic signals were reported for four or five days after the disappearance but
none yielded any understandable information.
[127][N 24]
The captain of the USS Colorado later
said "There was no doubt many stations were calling the Earhart plane on the plane's
frequency, some by voice and others by signals. All of these added to the confusion and
doubtfulness of the authenticity of the reports."
[128]

Search efforts
Beginning approximately one hour after Earhart's last recorded message, the USCGC Itasca
undertook an ultimately unsuccessful search north and west of Howland Island based on
initial assumptions about transmissions from the aircraft. The United States Navy soon joined
the search and over a period of about three days sent available resources to the search area in
the vicinity of Howland Island. The initial search by the Itasca involved running up the
157/337 line of position to the NNW from Howland Island. The Itasca then searched the area
to the immediate NE of the island, corresponding to the area, yet wider than the area searched
to the NW. Based on bearings of several supposed Earhart radio transmissions, some of the
search efforts were directed to a specific position on a line of 281 degrees (approximately
northwest) from Howland Island without evidence of the flyers.
[129]
Four days after Earhart's
last verified radio transmission, on July 6, 1937, the captain of the battleship Colorado
received orders from the Commandant, Fourteenth Naval District to take over all naval and
coast guard units to coordinate search efforts.
[129]

Later search efforts were directed to the Phoenix Islands south of Howland Island.
[130]
A
week after the disappearance, naval aircraft from the Colorado flew over several islands in
the group including Gardner Island (now called Nikumaroro), which had been uninhabited
for over 40 years. The subsequent report on Gardner read: "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... At the
western end of the island a tramp steamer (of about 4000 tons)... lay high and almost dry head
onto the coral beach with her back broken in two places. The lagoon at Gardner looked
sufficiently deep and certainly large enough so that a seaplane or even an airboat could have
landed or takenoff [sic] in any direction with little if any difficulty. Given a chance, it is
believed that Miss Earhart could have landed her aircraft in this lagoon and swum or waded
ashore."
[N 25]
They also found that Gardner's shape and size as recorded on charts were wholly
inaccurate. Other Navy search efforts were again directed north, west and southwest of
Howland Island, based on a possibility the Electra had ditched in the ocean, was afloat, or
that the aviators were in an emergency raft.
[132]

The official search efforts lasted until July 19, 1937.
[133]
At $4 million, the air and sea search
by the Navy and Coast Guard was the most costly and intensive in U.S. history up to that
time but search and rescue techniques during the era were rudimentary and some of the
search was based on erroneous assumptions and flawed information. Official reporting of the
search effort was influenced by individuals wary about how their roles in looking for an
American hero might be reported by the press.
[134][N 26]
Despite an unprecedented search by
the United States Navy and Coast Guard no physical evidence of Earhart, Noonan or the
Electra 10E was found. The aircraft carrier USS Lexington, the Colorado, and the Itasca (and
even two Japanese ships, the oceanographic survey vessel Koshu and auxiliary seaplane
tender Kamoi) searched for sixseven days each, covering 150,000 square miles
(390,000 km
2
).
[135][136]

Immediately after the end of the official search, Putnam financed a private search by local
authorities of nearby Pacific islands and waters, concentrating on the Gilberts. In late July
1937, Putnam chartered two small boats and while he remained in the United States, directed
a search of the Phoenix Islands, Christmas (Kiritimati) Island, Fanning (Tabuaeran) Island,
the Gilbert Islands and the Marshall Islands, but no trace of the Electra or its occupants was
found.
[137]

Back in the United States, Putnam acted to become the trustee of Earhart's estate so that he
could pay for the searches and related bills. In probate court in Los Angeles, Putnam
requested to have the "declared death in absentia" seven-year waiting period waived so that
he could manage Earhart's finances. As a result, Earhart was declared legally dead on January
5, 1939.
[138]

Theories on disappearance
Many theories emerged after the disappearance of Earhart and Noonan. Two possibilities
concerning the flyers' fate have prevailed among researchers and historians.
Crash and sink theory
Many researchers believe the Electra ran out of fuel and that Earhart and Noonan ditched at
sea. Navigator and aeronautical engineer Elgen Long and his wife Marie K. Long devoted 35
years of exhaustive research to the "crash and sink" theory, which is the most widely
accepted explanation for the disappearance.
[139]
Capt. Laurance F. Safford, USN, who was
responsible for the interwar Mid Pacific Strategic Direction Finding Net, and the decoding of
the Japanese PURPLE cipher messages for the attack on Pearl Harbor, began a lengthy
analysis of the Earhart flight during the 1970s. His research included the intricate radio
transmission documentation. Safford came to the conclusion, "poor planning, worse
execution."
[140]
Rear Admiral Richard R. Black, USN, who was in administrative charge of
the Howland Island airstrip and was present in the radio room on the Itasca, asserted in 1982
that "the Electra went into the sea about 10 am, July 2, 1937 not far from Howland".
[140]

British aviation historian Roy Nesbit interpreted evidence in contemporary accounts and
Putnam's correspondence and concluded Earhart's Electra was not fully fueled at Lae.
[141]

William L. Polhemous, the navigator on Ann Pellegreno's 1967 flight which followed Earhart
and Noonan's original flight path, studied navigational tables for July 2, 1937 and thought
Noonan may have miscalculated the "single line approach" intended to "hit" Howland.
[142]

David Jourdan, a former Navy submariner and ocean engineer specializing in deep-sea
recoveries, has claimed any transmissions attributed to Gardner Island were false. Through
his company Nauticos he extensively searched a 1,200-square-mile (3,100 km
2
) quadrant
north and west of Howland Island during two deep-sea sonar expeditions (2002 and 2006,
total cost $4.5 million) and found nothing. The search locations were derived from the line of
position (157337) broadcast by Earhart on July 2, 1937.
[110]
Nevertheless, Elgen Long's
interpretations have led Jourdan to conclude, "The analysis of all the data we have the fuel
analysis, the radio calls, other things tells me she went into the water off Howland."
[110]

Earhart's stepson George Palmer Putnam Jr. has been quoted as saying he believes "the plane
just ran out of gas."
[143]
Susan Butler, author of the "definitive"
[144]
Earhart biography East to
the Dawn, says she thinks the aircraft went into the ocean out of sight of Howland Island and
rests on the seafloor at a depth of 17,000 feet (5 km).
[145]
Tom D. Crouch, Senior Curator of
the National Air and Space Museum, has said the Earhart/Noonan Electra is "18,000 ft.
down" and may even yield a range of artifacts that could rival the finds of the Titanic, adding,
"... the mystery is part of what keeps us interested. In part, we remember her because she's
our favorite missing person."
[110]