Life raft

According to the Luke Field Inventory, there was no life raft on board the Electra for the first round-the-world attempt.

There was confusion in the press after the fatal flight. "Putnam never said that Earhart had a portable life raft or an emergency radio. The Itasca got that mistaken impression early in the search from a badly-worded and misinterpreted exchange of messages with Coast guard headquarters in San Francisco. Several days later the confusion was cleared up" (Gillespie, Forum, 2004-11-06).