Originally Posted by
parabellum
Last speculation I saw was that Frank Noonan enjoyed a drink and was thought to have 'pushed the boat' out the night before, may well have dropped off to sleep at a critical time and may have forgotten to allow for crossing the IDL when making his calculations and using tables.
Fred Noonan's departure from Pan Am was rumored to be due to alcohol and some, but not all of the cites on this page seem to confirm the issue:
https://earharttruth.wordpress.com/2...he-true-story/
Here's a version of the ending of Noonan's career at Pan Am based largely on a 1972 interview in the PAA archives of fellow crewmembers Victor Wright and Harry Canaday:
Fred Noonan was 'let go' at the end of 1936 for drinking. He was in the words of a fellow crew member sent to the Cincinnati Division. I am assured by a former PAA navigator that that was the euphemism for 'getting the boot.' What is my evidence for this and how credible it that evidence?
In the archives of PAA, in Miami, there exists a series of transcribed interviews between John Leslie, a former PAA executive and several crew from the pioneering days of the Clippers. Two of those crew flew with Fred. They are Victor Wright and Harry Canaday. Both, but particularly Wright tell in no uncertain terms what happened.
Fred developed a severe drink problem after Acapulco where the Clipper stopped during its transfer across country from Miami to Alameda. He suddenly found fame according to Wright and it went to his head. Before this he had been 'rock steady' with no sign of a 'crackup'. He 'did a beautiful piece of work'. Then in Acapulco everyone was shaking his hand. Overnight he became a celebrity, invited to all the parties where he regaled the company with sea faring tales. He was very much in demand and the partying habit continued in Honolulu, Wake, Guam and Manila. One day he had to be sought out by Wright who had to get into some 'interesting situations' and proceeded to sober him up before his flight This resulted in a fall in the bathtub which knocked out his front teeth.Canaday navigated on the way back. One might say that this was 'normal behaviour' for the aviators of the time. Maybe for some but not for PAA.
Andre Priester another executive of the era instantly dismissed anyone under the influence of alcohol. It is a measure of the esteem in which Fred was held that he was tolerated for almost two years. Wright says that the 'Old Man' covered up for Fred. Was that Musick? or Priester? or Trippe? They knew he did a faultless job and he was indispensable for the proving flights. But by the time regular passenger carrying service was set up and other navigators were trained his value waned and he became a liability. The company carried very high class personages from heads of state to movie stars. It simply would not do for them to see the plane's navigator carried aboard comatose. He had to go. But according to Wright, PAA could not lose face by admitting they had employed Fred when he was in this state. They had too much to lose so he simply disappeared from the payroll. That is why there is no official record of him having been dismissed.
https://earharttruth.wordpress.com/2...he-true-story/
Decades later there were similar rumors at Pan Am about the father of the skipper of the ill-fated oil tanker
Exxon Valdez.
Also, Paul Mantz was originally planned to be the other crewmember on the fatal Pacific crossing according to some accounts but bailed out of the deal after Earhart's ground loop on takeoff in Hawaii on the earlier Pacific crossing attempt.
Paul Mantz had his own alcohol issues as cited in coverage of his fatal crash while filming a stunt for
The Flight of the Phoenix (1965).
The idea of a female aviator setting records for speed and distance in flight has been explored many times in the eight decades since the Earhart-Noonan disappearance by women like Brooke Knapp, Terri Jones and Jeana Yeager.