Crowds Cheer Pilot Flying Earhart Route

With hundreds of cheering well-wishers lining the taxiway of Miami’s Kendall-Tamiami Executive Airport, Linda Finch, the Texas businesswoman and aviator who is retracing the round-the-world route Amelia Earhart attempted to fly, took off on the first over-water leg of her journey. Her 1935 Lockheed Electra 10E--the same model Earhart flew in 1937--carried the 46-year-old Finch and navigator Bob Fodge toward Puerto Rico. Finch started her 24,557-mile journey in Oakland on March 17--60 years to the day after Earhart took off. She will pay tribute to Earhart by dropping a wreath in the ocean after taking off from New Guinea, the last place Earhart was seen.