Retracing Of Earhart Flight Reaches Thailand

The American pilot following in the footsteps of aviation heroine Amelia Earhart landed in the Thai capital Friday on the latest leg of her around-the-world journey.

Linda Finch was greeted with a garland from the president of Thai Airways International when she emerged from the cockpit of her restored 1935 Lockheed Electra 10-E - the same model Earhart was flying when she disappeared over the Pacific Ocean in 1937.

Finch, 46, arrived in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai on Wednesday after a flight from Calcutta, India.

Finch departed March 17 from the same hangar in Oakland, Calif., that Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, left 60 years ago. They vanished 22,000 miles into their trip, somewhere near Howland Island in the Pacific Ocean.

With her arrival in Bangkok, Finch has traveled 14,087 miles of her 24,749-mile journey. She’s still about 6,504 miles from the Howland Island area.