New grounds ( the strongest yet ) suggests that a while of aluminum detritus discover on a remote island in the South Pacific foretell Nikumaroro back in 1991 came from Amelia Earhart ’s aircraft , according to astatement from TIGHAR , The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery . The unexampled piece of work pad speculation that a sonar anomaly detected off the uninhabited island ’s west last is Earhart ’s lose aircraft .
During a week ’s check in Miami at the outset of Earhart ’s 2nd globose circumnavigation attempt , a particular custom windowpane on her Lockheed Electra was absent and substitute with an aluminum patch on the starboard side . The dimensions , ratio , and rivet blueprint of this so - called “ Miami Patch ” were specific to the yap that it covered as well as to the residue of the aircraft ’s structure — although why the change was made is still a mystery . The shining while can be seen inthis Miami Herald photofrom June 1937 .
According to TIGHAR , multiple man of grounds suggest that Earhart land safely on the Nikumaroro Rand shortly thereafter . She then sent radio suffering calls for at least five nights before the rising tides and wafture washed her aircraft into the ocean , leaving Earhart and her crew fellow member , Fred Noonan , strand on the uninhabited atoll . old hypotheses suggested that Earhart and Noonan crashed in the Pacific after running out of fuel before reach their target of Howland Island . ( Nikumaroro is some 560 km southeast of Howland Island . )
In 1991 , an aluminum fragment wash away up on the shoring of Nikumaroro . CalledArtifact 2 - 2 - V-1 , it appears to check the Miami Patch . “ The dapple was as unique to her fussy aircraft as a fingermark is to an individual,”TIGHAR ’s Ric Gillespie write .
Together with forensic imaging medical specialist , TIGHAR researchers visit a reconstruct Lockheed c / n 1091 in Kansas originally this calendar month to well realize the role of that particular windowpane ( with dimensions of roughly 61 atomic number 96 x 47 centimetre ) and the Miami Patch it was replaced with , and how it all fit together . They found piles of matches between the real and dimensional requirement of the Al spell on the Lockheed aircraft and the atomic number 13 junk .
“ This is the first time an artefact find on Nikumaroro has been show to have a unmediated linkup to Amelia Earhart,”Gillespie tells Discovery . If Artifact 2 - 2 - V-1 is the Miami Patch , then its tears and dents would be significant clues to the fate of Earhart ’s aircraft . you could see a cool gallery Earhart ’s Electra , the special windowpane and plot of ground , and restored Lockheed models inthis week ’s Earhart Project Researcher Bulletin .
moreover , a sonar anomaly descry in 2012 near Nikumaroro could turn out to be the wreckage of Earhart ’s aircraft . The strange feature was detect in sonar imagery of Nikumaroro ’s underwater Witwatersrand slope at a deepness of closely 200 meters . The feature is resting at the al-Qaida of a drop ( where some believe the plane wash into the sea ) , and it appear to be the right size and shape of the primary body of Earhart ’s planing machine .
The new oeuvre with Artifact 2 - 2 - robot bomb surely reward that possibility , and TIGHAR will be return to Nikumaroro next year to investigate the anomaly with a remotely work vehicle .
Images : WikimediaUsers Bzuk and Alaniaris ( top ) , TIGHAR ( middle )
