Captain Harry Manning
Earhart's first choice as navigator was Captain Harry Manning, who had been the captain of the President Roosevelt, the ship that had brought Amelia back from Europe in 1928.[1] Manning was an accomplished nautical navigator, ham radio operator and amateur pilot.[2]
"Manning was to have been the radio operator, and one of his jobs would be to manually reel out and in the trailing wire (as well as to throw the antenna selector switch, located in the aft section)" (Mike Everette, 7 September 2000 Forum).
Mantz was scheduled to leave the plane in Honolulu; Noonan at Howland Island, and Manning in Darwin, Australia.