It has been 8 decades since Amelia Earhart disappeared while attempting to be the first ever female pilot to circumnavigate the world, and her disappearance in 1937 has turned out to be amongst the greatest mysteries in history.
Now the creators of History Channel’s newest investigation special believe they possess strong and compelling evidence that will provide answers to the disappearance of Earhart on her Lockheed Electra for good: a vintage, cracked photo unearthed in the National Archives, displaying a crowd of people on the Marshall Islands dock. Included in them were 2 individuals who could be Earhart and Fred Noonan, her navigator.
According to experts of the show, the short-haired individual at back is Earhart, and the gentleman on the left is Noonan (receding hairline). However, the photo was taken from afar, the gentleman’s face is in shade and, the individual believed to be Earhart is not facing the camera.
Les Kinney, a former US Treasury agent discovered the photograph in a carton of papers from the Office of Naval Intelligence when searching for proof about the disappearance of Earhart that could have been missed. The box the photo was in was labeled “declassified”.
The experts featured in the said special believes the photography provides strong credibility to the theory: Earhart could not locate Howland Island, which is her next refueling station. Therefore she turned back westward and arrived on Mili Atoll. They believe they were then saved and brought to Jaluit Island, where there was a deepwater harbor.
Researcher Richard Spink has been in several trips to the Marshall Islands and thinks he has discovered parts of Earhart’s Lockheed Electra on Mili Atoll. If it is certainly Earhart and Noon in the photography, then they must have crashed in the Islands and survived.
The two could have been brought to a Japanese prison on the Saipan Island, according to the National Geographic special. However, if Noonan and Earhart were confined for lockup, why do they seem so calm in the photo?
The special’s executive producer Gary Tarpinian says the photo is evidence of what several people on the said islands have long detained: Noonan and Earhart arrived there and a Koshu (Japanese boat) brought them to Saipan. The show was able to interview residents in Saipan, especially a woman named Tarpinian who says she could have been the last person alive who saw the female pilot with her own eyes.
However, Richard Gillespie, another expert who heads the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, is not at all persuaded the photo portrays Earhart.
He thinks the aviator passed away on an island which is now known as Kiribati, said a newspaper. Gillespie says the individual in the photo has hair too long to be her, who he claims was taken just days prior,
James Pritchett, the National Archives communications director, says they do not know the exact date of when the photo was taken. They don’t have any idea who the photographer is what the “PL” in the caption even means.
