On July 2, 1937, Amelia Earhart’s voice crackled over the radio: “We must be on you but cannot see you. Gas is running low.

Been unable to reach you by radio. We are flying at 1,000 feet.” Surrounded by endless ocean, Earhart was lost, and her disappearance would become one of history’s greatest mysteries. Earhart was already world-famous for her record-setting flights, but her goal was to be the first woman to fly around the world.

Unlike previous attempts that followed northern land routes, Earhart chose a path close to the equator, making the final Pacific leg the most dangerous. Departing from Lae, New Guinea, Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan faced a daunting flight to Howland Island, a tiny strip of land in the Pacific. To maximize her plane’s range, Earhart removed everything nonessential, including insulation and passenger seats, replacing them with fuel tanks.

The Electra was now a flying gas can, but this made communication with Noonan difficult due to overwhelming engine noise. Navigation was a huge challenge. Noonan used dead reckoning, calculating their position based on speed, direction, and wind, but a vital message from Lae about stronger headwinds was never received, possibly due to a malfunctioning antenna.

This meant their calculations were off from the start. Noonan also relied on celestial navigation, measuring angles to stars and the sun, but small errors could accumulate over thousands of kilometers, and there were no alternate landing sites if they missed Howland. Three ships—the Itasca at Howland, Ontario, and Swan—were stationed to assist, equipped with radios and smoke signals.

Earhart’s Electra had five antennas for different frequencies, including a trailing wire for Morse code and others for voice communication. Radio direction finding was possible using her loop antenna, but only on lower frequencies. Unfortunately, a critical telegram instructing Ontario to transmit signals never reached the ship, so Earhart flew past without guidance.

At Howland, the Itasca was ready to help, but confusion over radio frequencies led to disaster. Earhart requested signals on 7,500 kHz, a high frequency unsuitable for direction finding.

The Itasca complied, but Earhart’s loop antenna couldn’t locate the source because the signal skipped off the ionosphere and arrived from all directions. Earhart’s ability to receive lower frequency signals was compromised because she had removed her trailing antenna after a previous crash, considering it unnecessary weight.

Time zone confusion added to the chaos, as Earhart, Itasca, and Howland Island operated on different clocks, leading to missed scheduled communications. Earhart’s final transmissions were desperate: “We must be on you but cannot see you. Gas is running low.” Then, “We are on the line 157-337. We are running on line north and south.”

These were her last words. Search efforts by Itasca and other ships failed to find any trace of Earhart, Noonan, or the Electra.

In the end, a series of avoidable mistakes, technical misunderstandings, and missed opportunities doomed Earhart’s flight. Her lack of knowledge about radio technology and the failure of those who did know to take responsibility for her safety led to disaster.

Had even one of several small details gone differently, Earhart might have landed safely and changed history. Her story is a lesson in the importance of both knowledge and responsibility when facing great challenges.