The notion is that Amelia and Fred Noonan landed safely on July 2, 1937 on the flat reef at low tide of Gardner Island (now Nikumaroro Island) 380 miles southeast of the destination, Howland Island, and for several days made HF radio transmissions at night heard by some in the States but not by the US Coast Guard or Navy who were searching for them. During the day she and Fred Noonan went ashore rather than sit inside the hot Electra.
Fearing that higher tides would draw the airplane off the reef and into the abyss as people speculate, one would think that they would have removed the plane’s seats, engine cowling and so much more for survival purposes and to place on the beach as a signal. Instead, nothing was left or found in subsequent years save what might be an old bottle of anti-freckle cream. Amelia did not like her freckles.
Yup, let’s bring anti-freckle cream ashore but not shiny aluminum airplane parts that could be seen by the Navy pilots who catapulted from the USS Colorado in their Vought O3U Corsair float planes and circled the island several days later.