Researchers have found a sheet of metal on a remote Pacific atoll that they believe is a piece from Amelia Earhart’s plane, shedding light on the mystery of her disappearance.
The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) uncovered a warped piece of metal on the uninhabited island of Nikumaroro, part of the republic of Kiribati, in 1991.
The group has spent more than two decades attempting to determine the provenance of the piece of metal and whether it could have been a piece of Earhart’s aircraft by comparing it to similar planes to the Lockhead Electra flown by the aviation pioneer.
From their investigations, the group now claim with “increasing confidence” that the piece of metal discovered on the remote island matches a repair patch made to Earhart’s plane at a stop in Miami in 1937 during her attmpt to circumnavigate the Earth at the equator.
In a statement, the group said:
“During Amelia Earhart’s stay in Miami at the beginning of her second world flight attempt, a custom-made, special window on her Lockheed Electra aircraft was removed and replaced with an aluminum patch. The patch was an expedient field modification. Its dimensions, proportions, and pattern of rivets were dictated by the hole to be covered and the structure of the aircraft. The patch was as unique to her particular aircraft as a fingerprint is to an individual. Research has now shown that a section of aircraft aluminum TIGHAR found on Nikumaroro in 1991 matches that fingerprint in many respects.”
The piece of metal supports to the suggestion that Earhart landed her aircraft safely on the reef at Nikumaroro and sent radio distress calls for at least five nights before the Electra was washed into the ocean by rising tides and surf leaving Earhart and Noonan stranded on the uninhabited atoll.
The researchers believe that the piece of metal is debris from the plane that washed up on the shore of the island during a storm. Sonar data of the waters around the atoll show an object that is around the same size as the fuselage from Earhart’s aircraft, but researchers still need to visit the site to determine whether the object is a naturally occurring geological feature or a large part of the lost plane.
