(Newswire.net — October 30, 2014) — The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) claims aluminum debris that washed up on the shore of uninhabited Island Nikumaroro (560 kilometers southeast of Howland Island) belongs to Amelia Earhart’s Lockheed Electra.
Amelia’s airplane was customized to meet requirements of the flight. The window on the starboard side on her Lockheed Electra was removed and replaced with an aluminum patch during a week’s stay in Miami at the beginning of Earhart’s second global circumnavigation attempt.
“The patch was as unique to her particular aircraft as a fingerprint is to an individual,” TIGHAR’s Ric Gillespie said. The aluminum fragment from Nikumaroro, called Artifact 2-2-V-1, appears to match the Miami Patch.
The dimensions, proportions, and rivet patterns of this so-called “Miami Patch” were specific to the hole that it covered, as it can be seen in Miami Herald photo of Earhart’s ‘Electra’ from June 1937.
Some airmen says that aluminum patch was made not to protect the aircraft fuselage from accidental damage but to remove weight from the structure, which should result in less fuel consumption—although why the change was made is still a mystery.
Experts from TIGHAR believe that Earhart and her crew member, Fred Noonan, landed safely on the Nikumaroro. They believe she sent radio distress calls for at least five nights before the rising tides and waves washed her aircraft into the ocean. Official version is that Earhart and Noonan crashed in the Pacific after running out of fuel before reaching their target of Howland Island.
“This is the first time an artifact found on Nikumaroro has been shown to have a direct link to Amelia Earhart,” Gillespie said.
Furthermore, a sonar anomaly spotted in 2012 in Nikumaroro’s underwater reef slope at a depth of nearly 200 meters could be the wreckage of Earhart’s aircraft, experts say as it appears to be the right size and shape of the main body of Earhart’s plane.
TIGHAR will be returning to Nikumaroro next year to investigate the anomaly with a remotely operated vehicle and hope to unlock one of the greatest aviation mysteries ever.