"Nikumaroro Atoll" Plane Debris Belongs To Amelia Earhart's Lost Aircraft

Nikumaroro Atoll, Kiribati - A piece of aluminum aircraft debris recovered in Nikumaroro belongs to Amelia Earhart's lost plane in 1937, new research suggests.

A new development in the search for the mystery of Amelia Earhart's vanished aircraft is discovered by researchers. The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) researchers strongly suggests that a fragment from Earhart's lost plane has been identified in Nikumaroro Atoll, an uninhabited Pacific coral atoll located in Republic of Kiribati, between Hawaii and Australia.

It is the first time in the 77 year old aviation mystery that an artifact from Earhart's twin-engined Lockheed Electra has been directly linked to her last voyage.

The metal fragment, 19 inch wide by 23 inch long, was first found in 1991 at Nikumaroro Atoll. It is strongly believed that the fragment was part of the window of Earhart's aircraft.

The metal patch was identified from a photograph of the aircraft as seen from "The Miami Herald" dated July 1, 1937 and now in TIGHAR's website. Researchers then compared the metal patch with that of Lockheed Electra aircraft's at Wichita Air Services in Newton, Kansas, reported Discovery News.

The metal fragment from Nikumaroro Atoll matched with that of the structural component of the metal patch in the window of a Lockheed Electra being restored in Kansas.

Ric Gillespie, executive director of TIGHAR, told Discovery News, "The Miami Patch was an expedient field repair,". He added, "Its complex fingerprint of dimensions, proportions, materials and rivet patterns was as unique to Earhart's Electra as a fingerprint is to an individual."

Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, departed from Miami, Florida in June 1, 1937 completed nearly 22,000 miles of an attempt to circumnavigate the world in the equator. They took off from Lae for their next destination in Howland Island, a tiny island in the Pacific. The Lockheed Electra plane disappeared in their journey somewhere the vast Pacific Ocean.

A massive search was then conducted through land, air and water but all failed to turn hard evidence and remained a mystery. The breakthrough discovery of the metal piece in Nikumaroro Atoll suggests that the two aviators did a forced landing in the atoll and became castaways eventually leading to their death.

TIGHAR researchers will go to Nikumaroro to continue their investigation and to find more evidence to clearly unveil the mystery.