Fred Noonan Fred Noonan Frederick Joseph "Fred" Noonan (born April 4, 1893; declared missing July 2, 1937 and dead June 20, 1938), was an American flight navigator, sea captain and aviation pioneer who first charted many commercial airline routes across the Pacific Ocean during the 1930s. He was last seen in Lae, New Guinea, on July 2, 1937, on the last land stop with famed aviator Amelia Earhart (1897-1937), as her navigator when they disappeared somewhere over the Central Pacific Ocean during one of the last legs of their attempted pioneering round-the-world flight. Fred Noonan was born in Cook County, Illinois (the
Dampier Strait (Papua New Guinea) crossed the Dampier Strait on landing craft. Dampier Strait (Papua New Guinea) Dampier Strait in Papua New Guinea separates Umboi Island and New Britain, linking the Bismarck Sea to the north with the Solomon Sea to the south. The strait is named after the first European to sail through it, British navigator William Dampier in 1700 in . Dampier described his discoveries in his "A Continuation of a Voyage to New Holland" Ch. 4 New Britain Discovered in these terms: NEW BRITAIN. The easternmost part of New Guinea lies 40 miles to the westward of this tract of land, and