Early on the morning of March 20, 1937, with Noonan and Manning on board, Earhart ran into trouble. Her craft went into a ground loop and finally came to a crashing halt. The Electra would require massive work to make it airworthy again. The circumstances of the ground loop are still not clearly explained and remain controversial. Some witnesses at Luke Field, including the Associated Press journalists on scene said they saw a tire blow. Earhart thought either the Electra’s right tire had blown out/or the right landing gear had collapsed. Several others, including Paul Mantz thought it was pilot error.
