Originally Posted by
flywatcher
Amelia may have not been the best operator of a Lockheed 10 ever, but she was not stupid. She, like any of us, certainly had a "plan B".
These are very controversial statements, probably difficult to support.
Actually the reverse was probably close to truth - she was an excellent operator of the aircraft as her prior numerous races, achievements and awards show. But when it came to meticulous flight planning she was probably falling short. People were urging her to better master the use of the radio and the use of the new directional antenna (brand new technology at the time) that could help them in the final minutes honing in on the island. She did neither, she could not even hear transmissions from the ship due to some mishap with frequency setting. She disregarded all these details that could potentially could have saved them. Noonan was in the back of the airplane, separated from her by a series of fuel tanks, the only communication between them, due to noise was through some paper notes he would send her through a stretched cable - clearly it was she who needed to operate the antenna, the radios, etc.