Pilot Drops Wreaths In Tribute To Earhart

Linda Finch is not following Amelia Earhart anymore.

In an emotional tribute, the American pilot flew over Howland Island in the central South Pacific on Monday and dropped three silk wreaths in memory of the aviation pioneer who disappeared near there 60 years ago.

Earhart vanished with navigator Fred Noonan in 1937 while trying to become the first pilot to circumnavigate the globe at its widest point, the equator.

Finch left Oakland, Calif., on March 17 to retrace and complete Earhart’s last flight in a rebuilt plane nearly identical to hers.

Finch said she dropped one wreath to express her admiration for Earhart, one from the people in Earhart’s hometown of Atchison, Kan., and one from Zonta, a women’s service group that Earhart belonged to.