The Times News

Picked up by Mainland Operators as Greatest of All Ocean Hunts Is Pushed by United States Navy;
First Two-Way Contact Is Established by Radio Men And Relayed to Honolulu

HONOLULU, T. H., July 5. (UP) United States battleships, destroyers and airplanes, mobilized in one of the greatest seahunts of all time raced today over the South Pacific where Amelia Earhart and Frederick Noonan are believed floating in a landplane so badly waterlogged that it 'can't last much longer.'

Two mainland radio operators reported hearing messages in wavelength assigned to the Earhart plane. One message said, 'Still alive—better hurry—tell husband all right.' The other message said, 'Waterlogged can't last much longer.' These messages were relayed to Honolulu after four weak signals were picked up by three powerful radio stations were believed to have formed the first two-way contact between the rescuers and the missing fliers.

The signals were made by opening and closing the radio circuit four times. They were received shortly after Honolulu flashed an appeal to the missing fliers to turn the radio circuit off four times if they were hearing Honolulu.

SIX WARSHIPS JOIN TODAY IN GREATEST OCEAN SEARCH
HONOLULU, T.H., July 5.— (UP)—Six U. S. warships raced over the Pacific today in the greatest sea hunt ever mobilized as faint radio signals, crackling out of the desolate ocean stretches along the equator, gave almost certain proof that Amelia Earhart and her flying companion, Capt. Fred Noonan, were alive, either adrift or on a reef south of Howland island.

The signals, first contact made with the $80,000 'flying laboratory' since it was forced down Friday on a flight from Lae, New Guinea, were received by three powerful radio stations here in response to a broadcast by station KGMB at Honolulu.

Pan-American Airways direction finder picked up the calls at Mokapu Point, and estimated the origin was south of tiny Howland island. The station said it could not place the location exactly, due to the weakness of the signals.

Meanwhile from other points came reports, all apparently coinciding, of messages received by voice radio from the missing plane.

Naval operations headquarters at Washington, D. C., ordered the aircraft carrier Lexington, with 72 planes aboard, to proceed from San Diego, Calif., under forced draft to the Howland area, in aid of the search.

Four destroyers—the Cushing, Perkins, Lamson and Drayton—raced over the Pacific with the Lexington to join the battleship Colorado, already ploughing toward Howland from Honolulu.

The coast guard cutter Itasca, cruising northwest of Howland in search of the plane, changed its course after receiving reports of the signals picked up by Pan-American, and headed across the equator toward a point about 200 miles below Howland.

HUGE AIR PATROL POISED FOR FLIGHT

A huge naval patrol plane was ready to take off from Pearl Harbor if weather reports indicated it could make the 1900-mile flight to Howland. A navy plane was forced to turn back yesterday.

The signals picked up by Pan-American's direction finder were described as 'carrier wave' signals on Miss Earhart's sending band. The station said the signals were 'rough and weak, split badly' and estimated a 'doubtful bearing of 213 degrees on a gonio.'

The 'gonio' is a circle theoretically drawn with the station at Mokapu Point as a center, and zero degree due north. The figure 213 degrees would roughly place the sender on a line from Mokapu southward, running slightly east of Howland island.

The coast guard and naval radio stations both picked up similar signals quite strongly, they reported. The Wailupe station said it got a 'man's voice.'

As the flier apparently flashed her distress calls through the ether at regular intervals, amateur stations from Los Angeles to Wyoming reported picking up 'voice' calls, and one reporting a message from Miss Earhart saying she was alive on a tiny reef just below the equator.

Two Honolulu broadcasting stations, KGU and KGMB, planned to broadcast calls to the plane at 15-minute intervals until 8 p. m. (2:30 a. m., EDT) when KGMB will broadcast all calls.

Meanwhile the Itasca and other stations tuned in on Miss Earhart,
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SIX WARSHIPS ARE RACING TOWARD AREA
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Hart's wave-length will remain silent to clear the air for her calls.

Col. George Bicknell of Pan-American said his station will stand by in an effort to pick up the return signals with its beam finder.

Bicknell said KGMB's signals for an unexplained reason were better heard at Howland and Baker islands, 35 miles south of Howland, than the other Honolulu station.

Pan-America's apparent contact with the Earhart plane was the first response received in two days of broadcasting calls to it, asking its position.

Station KGMB broadcast about 7 a. m., PST (11 a. m., EDT) to the lost plane:

"If you hear this signal answer by dashes."

At 7:15 a. m. the Mokapu station reported it got a response, but it was so weak the Pan-American direction finders were not able to locate its exact position.

However, the station estimated it was "southeast of Howland" which for the first time placed the plane in a location south of the island instead of northwest.

The information was relayed to the Itasca which immediately shifted its course to that direction. Coast guard headquarters differed slightly with Pan-American experts on the position, estimating that it was southwest.