Amelia Earhart 17, 1937, Earhart and her crew flew the first leg from Oakland, California to Honolulu, Hawaii. In addition to Earhart and Noonan, Harry Manning and Mantz (who was acting as Earhart's technical advisor) were on board. Due to lubrication and galling problems with the propeller hubs' variable pitch mechanisms, the aircraft needed servicing in Hawaii. Ultimately, the Electra ended up at the United States Navy's Luke Field on Ford Island in Pearl Harbor. The flight resumed three days later from Luke Field with Earhart, Noonan and Manning on board. During the takeoff run, there was an uncontrolled ground-loop, the forward
Amelia Earhart: The Lost Evidence Electra was at least close to Howland Island, 800 miles away from the Marshall Islands. Author Fukiko Aoki, who researched and wrote a 1982 book, "Looking for Amelia", was similarly critical before the revelations from Yamano. Aoki located an elderly officer, part of the 1937 crew of the "Kōshū Maru", who denied the ship's involvement. Aoki subsequently researched the "Kōshū Maru" ship log, which showed that it was 1,500 miles away at the time of Earhart's disappearance. It was also argued that to reach and somehow land on the remote atoll where she purportedly crashed would have required Earhart, though