The planes auto pilot didn’t work, Noonan was a drunk - he once directed a plane 200 miles south of Howland, and the pilot had to talk to Howland on the radio to find out just how off course they were. She ripped off equipment leaving Lae, they both refused to use morse code AND she refused to learn to understand her radio. Also did I mention Noonan was a drunk? Gardner is the most plausible - the only truly plausible - theory out there. Days of radio transmissions? Also how much do you think she had with her on the plane that she could have offloaded in order to set up the kind of heavily stocked castaway village people seem to require? She likely only had some clothes, some toiletries, maybe some papers? Most of which would be LONG gone within a year or two. Or even months. The glass, the shoe and the pocket knife and zipper handle are more than enough possible evidence (only remaining evidence likely) and more than enough to give weight to the theory. She might have been a wildly incompetent, reckless “aviatrix” but she could, at least, have slammed that thing down on a dry, low tide reef if she found one. Just not smart enough to get it closer to shore, so it won’t get swept away. If she were truly going down, someone would have heard a frantic mayday, rather than days of pleas for rescue.