00:59Kiribati: Did Amelia Earhart die stranded as an island castaway?
New evidence unearthed in Amelia Earhart’s case on Monday suggested the aviatrix died on the uninhibited Nikumaroro Island after her plane crashed.
According to the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR), who led the investigation, the aluminium fragment found on Nikumaroro Island, belonged “with a high degree of certainty” to Earhart’s plane. Previously it was believed that Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan had drowned in the Pacific Ocean after their plane ran out of gas and crashed. However the aluminium piece suggests that the pioneering aviatrix made an emergency landing on Nikumaroro and survived on the island for an indeterminate amount of time. The aluminium panel was installed on Earhart’s plane on a stopover in Miami and replaced a navigational window on her journey to circumnavigate the globe.
The plane, carrying Earhart and Noonan disappeared in the Pacific on the second of July in 1937. Earhart was the first female aviator cross the Atlantic Ocean on a plane unaccompanied.
Footage courtesy of The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery
00:59New evidence unearthed in Amelia Earhart’s case on Monday suggested the aviatrix died on the uninhibited Nikumaroro Island after her plane crashed.
According to the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR), who led the investigation, the aluminium fragment found on Nikumaroro Island, belonged “with a high degree of certainty” to Earhart’s plane. Previously it was believed that Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan had drowned in the Pacific Ocean after their plane ran out of gas and crashed. However the aluminium piece suggests that the pioneering aviatrix made an emergency landing on Nikumaroro and survived on the island for an indeterminate amount of time. The aluminium panel was installed on Earhart’s plane on a stopover in Miami and replaced a navigational window on her journey to circumnavigate the globe.
The plane, carrying Earhart and Noonan disappeared in the Pacific on the second of July in 1937. Earhart was the first female aviator cross the Atlantic Ocean on a plane unaccompanied.
Footage courtesy of The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery