Evening star., 1937-07-09
RAIN THREATENING
TO DELAY SEARCH
FOR MISS EARHART
Warship officers Planning
to Catapu|t Three Planes
in Hunt.
POSSIBILITY THAT PAIR
ARE ON REEF is DOUBTED
Battleship Colorado Proceeds
Slowly Through Perilous Un-
charted Pacific Waters.
BY the Associatec Press.

BY the Associatec Press.
HONOLULU, July Equatorial
rain squalls threatened to interrupt
the search for Amelia Earhart, which
Navy airmen considered was entering
its most crucial phase today.
Despite forecast Of rain and poor
visibility, officers aboard the battle
ship Colorado planned to catapult her
three planes aloft again in expectation
of completing an aerial search of the
Phoenix Islands tomorrow.
Today and Saturday. they said they
felt, was the most critical period since
the Coast Guard cutter started the
search just week ago.
Airmen felt in flights yesterday and
Wednesday they definitely eliminated
the possibility she was in the area
ground Winslow Reef.
136,000 Square Miles Secured.
BY sea and air search for the missing
aviatrix and her navigator, Frederick
J. Noonan. has encompassed approx
mately 1856 900 square miles without
even sighting some Of the shoals and
sandspits supposed to exist in the
vast area
The flyers vanished q week ago to-
day IN an attempt to fly the also
miles from Lac, New Guinea. to How
land Island. q dot Of land but feet
above the sea-
Three planes from the Colorado.
steaming steadily from the equator
southward to the Phoenix Islands,
scared over the area east and south
OF Rowland Islands yesterday but
sighted no trace of the pair.
The planes, piloted by Lieuts. J. o.
Lambrecht, L. O. Fox and w. B. Short,
]r.. could not even find Winslow Reef,
which old charts showed peeked just
above the sea ITS miles southeast Of
Rowland.
Mariners expressed belief the only
available charts either misrepresented
the location of the reef, which might
have offered a precarious emergency
landing spot, or else the little known
outcropping had sunk below the SEA 3
surface.
viii Swing South Again.
The Colorado's flyers. awaiting aid
over the week end from the aircraft
carrier Lexington's plane armada. to-
day planned to swing southwark once
again but come back on q course
west of the Phoenix and Rowland
Islands.
This expedition would cover area
previously unexplored by the Coast
Guard cutter Itasca, which carried
on the search alone for days near
Rowland Islands before the Colorado
sped southwark from Hawaii, more
than 1900 miles away.
Yesterdays flight Of more than 500
miles after the planes were catapulted
from the battleship's deck covered
hundreds Of square miles not previ-
ouSly scanned.
Today the aviators planned to 90
as far south as Gardner Island and
Carondolet Reef, the southernmost
part of the Phoenix Islands, which
center 280 miles south Of lonely How
land.
Planes from the Colorado, which
was proceeding cautiously to avoid
uncharted reefs in the little traversed
equatorial area, were expected to COM
plete search of the Phoenix group
before arrival Of the Lexington, be-
ing refueled at Lahaina Roads, near
Honolulu.
The $4,000, 900 aircraft carrier
which sped from San Diego to Hawaii
was expected to get away for the 500
mile dash to the search area today
and spread her brood of planes prob
ably next Monday.