Amelia Earhart's Disappearance: a startling new discovery

-
First I have to say:

Happy Birthday, Carleen.

-
I will be doing a joint birthday post for her and Steve tomorrow, Steve's day of birth. So... Carleen.. you've been bumped in favor of my startling discovery of new clues as to the Amelia Earhart Disappearance.
-
-
On this day in 1937, Amelia Earhart disappeared in her Lockheed Electra somewhere over the Pacific. She had already made a solo, nonstop flight over the Atlantic, as well as a solo, non-stop, coast-to-coast over the U.S. Now, just before her 40th birthday, she wanted to circumnavigate the globe. Sounds reasonable to me.
-
July 2, 1937, she had completed all but 7,000 of her 29,000-mile journey. Flying at 1,000 feet, she began to run out of gas, reported thus, and was never seen or heard from again. Most of us are familiar with this story.
-
Here's something I never knew: She was with a man. Fred Noonan. I never noticed that detail before. That changes everything for me. I now have two of my own theories about her disappearance:
-
1. They eloped. Tired of paparazzi and riches and fame, unlike Jon and Kate, they traded fame and fortune for a good relationship instead of the opposite. They are living out their romance on a Pacific Isle, approaching her 112th birthday.
-
2. Noonan refused to ask for directions and they ran out of gas and crashed. He was, after all, her navigator. Why? Why she chose a man to be her navigator is beyond me. Her successful flights had been solo. Now she takes a navigator... a male navigator.

Like dogs, men navigate via their nose.

In fact, they take pride in their natural ability to navigate. They notoriously refuse to ask for directions, you know I'm right.
-
So... that's it. That's my big discovery, a man. Ponder my two theories and you figure out which one is most plausible. Leave me a comment and let me know which theory you believe.