On the evening of May 20, 1932, Amelia Earhart climbed into her single-engine Lockheed Vega at Harbour Grace, Newfoundland. Her goal was to fly nonstop across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe -- alone. No woman had ever done this before. Charles Lindbergh had made the first solo transatlantic flight five years earlier. Earhart wanted to prove that women could achieve the same remarkable feat. The flight was treacherous from the start. Earhart flew into heavy storm clouds and ice began forming on her wings. Ice buildup makes a plane heavier and changes the shape of the wings, which can cause a dangerous loss of lift. Her altimeter stopped working, leaving her unable to tell how high she was flying. At one point, the plane dropped so quickly she could see whitecaps on the ocean below. A fuel leak filled the cockpit with fumes. Despite these dangers, Earhart kept flying east. After approximately fifteen hours, she spotted the green coast of Northern Ireland. She landed in a cow pasture near the town of Londonderry. A startled farmer watched her climb out of the plane. "Have you come far?" he asked. "From America," she replied. Earhart became a worldwide celebrity overnight. She received medals from Congress, the French government, and the National Geographic Society. Her flight proved that determination and skill, not gender, defined what a pilot could accomplish.