Famed American aviator Amelia Earhart was on her second attempt to fly around the world when she and her navigator vanished over the Pacific on 2 July 1937.

The first was a westbound route through the Pacific starting from Oakland, California in March 1937. The first destination was Hawaii with tiny Howland Island, about 3,040 kilometers or 9-hour flight away, as next stop, but she crashed on takeoff in Honolulu on 20 March. She had the Lockheed Electra 10-E repaired in California and then changed her route to eastbound starting from Miami, Florida on 1 June that year.

With Fred Noonan as guide, Earthart reached Lae, Papua New Guinea in her second attempt and was again to stop next in Howland, about 18 to 20 hours or 4,733 kms away, but failed again as their plane disappeared over the Pacific on 2 July 1937, starting a aviation mystery that lives to this day.