The disappearance of American aviatrix Amelia Earhart in 1937. A smiling Amelia Earhart stands with a man, possibly Fred Noonan. Earhart and crew loading up an airplane parked in a hanger. May 20, 1937, Lockheed Model 10-E Electra taking off from Oakland, California bound for Miami, Florida on the first leg of Earhart's second attempt at an around-the-world flight. Earhart and her navigator disappear during the flight and are last heard from on July 2, 1937. A huge air sea search is undertaken to find them. An aircraft carrier underway at sea. Airplane parked on the flight deck. Bi-Planes fly in formation during search.
An air-sea search for Amelia Earhart and her navigator in the Pacific Ocean. Closeup of smiling Amelia Earhart. Officials board an aircraft that goes in search for Amelia Earhart and her navigator. The aircraft takes off from a runway. United States aircraft carrier underway at sea. Biplane takes off from carrier deck. Formation of biplanes over water.
Amelia Earhart and her crew take off from the U.S. Naval Air Station, Oakland, California, to begin their flight around the world. Views from another aircraft as their Lockheed Electra flies low over Western Span of the Bay Bridge and San Francisco, heading West toward the Pacific Ocean. Scene on the ground, several days earlier, Paul Mantz and Amelia Earhart Putnam converse, as he secures a dzuz fastener on the aircraft fuselage. Mechanic Bo McKneely helps Earhart step from the wing of the airplane. She talks with husband, George P. Putnam. Paul Mantz, talks with Earhart and George Putnam while Bo McKneely refuels the Lockheed Electra. In final scenes, ground crew pushes the Lockheed Electra into a Hangar at the Naval Air Station.
Orange trees growing in an orchard in California during the Great Depression. Walnut trees in a grove. Mountains surround a bean field. Clouds forming before a storm. Wheat stalks blowing in the wind. Lightning and thunder during a thunderstorm. Torrential rain floods a farmland. Soil erosion from flooding seen on a hillside. A farmer walks through land severely damaged by floods after a storm. A farmer and his wife survey the damage done to their orange grove after flooding. Various farmlands damaged by soil erosion. Muddy topsoil oozing and collapsing during heavy rain. Rain washing away the topsoil of land. Gullies forming from torrential rain. Topsoil being washed away in creeks. Rapids in creeks during heavy rain, pouring into rivers. Flood washing away an uprooted tree. Soil erodes from side of a river. Aerial view of topsoil pouring into the Pacific Ocean along the California Coast.
"Crossing the Line" initiation ceremony on a cruise ship. Shipboard ceremony marking the equator crossing. Passengers who have never crossed the equator before are "pollywogs" and initiated into the Kingdom of Neptune, by being messed up and tossed into the ship's pool, by members of "Neptune's Court" who wear masks and costumes and make fun of the whole event. A woman and a man are seen being dunked in the pool. Men play instruments.
Shows an American aircraft carrier amidst the waters of South Pacific, sent to search the missing aviatrix Amelia Earhart Putnam and navigator Fred Noonan. Several aircraft aboard the deck of the carrier.