Amelia, Sure. But What About Fred J. Noonan?

“During the night, Itasca’s radio operators had become increasingly exasperated. Earhart’s voice had come through in only a few, brief, static-marred transmissions — “sky overcast” was one — and hadn’t acknowledged any of Itasca’s messages or its steady stream of Morse code A’s sent as a homing signal: dot-dash, dot-dash… They decided the glamorous 39-year-old “Lady Lindy” was either arrogant or incompetent.

What nobody knew — not Earhart, and not Itasca — was that her plane’s radio-reception antenna had been ripped away during the takeoff from Lae’s bumpy dirt runway. The Itasca could hear Earhart, but she was unable to hear anything, voice or code.”

“Should we be so fortunate as to eventually relocate the bones found on Nikumaroro in 1940, or find more which may still be there, we’ll need samples of mitochondrial DNA from both the Earhart and Noonan families so that comparisons can be made. We must have mitochondrial DNA because that is the only kind expected to have survived in 61 year-old bones. This hardy form of DNA is passed exclusively through the female because the male’s mDNA resides in the tail of the sperm which, of course, never enters the egg. That means we need living, female line relatives of both Fred and AE. Amelia is no problem. Her sister’s daughter could be a source.

Fred is a problem. At present we know of no living relative except an alleged male cousin. Surprisingly little documentable information is available on Frederick J. Noonan and most of the brief biographical sketches of him in books about Earhart are little more than folklore.”

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I work with a guy that is an Amelia fanatic. The movie coming out is probably quite an event for him. But, obviously I have not paid attention over the years because I thought Amelia was alone…first woman to fly around the world I guess does not exclude a male navigator. Never heard of Fred Noonan and his role in this event. That said, just another oddity in the whole story. Like the pilots overshooting Minneapolis…Earhart/Noonan missed Howland Island for no explicable reason.