In 2017, investigators announced the discovery of a photo, buried in the National Archives for nearly 80 years, that they believed depicted Earhart and Noonan days after their disappearance. Captured by the JapaneseĪ third theory is that Earhart and Noonan, unable to find Howland Island to refuel, headed north to the Japanese-controlled Marshall Islands, where they were captured. Theory: Bones found in South Pacific 'likely' Amelia Earhart's, researcher says 3. The main issue with this theory is that Navy planes searched the four-mile-long Gardner Island on Jwithout seeing Earhart or her plane. Fundis plan to make time to explore the alternate theory favored by some skeptics of the Nikumaroro hypothesis: that Earhart crashed at sea closer to Howland.The group believes Earhart and Noonan lived for a time as castaways on the waterless atoll, relying on rain squalls for drinking water, and eventually dying on the island. That will bring the ship to the area around Howland Island, Earhart’s intended destination for refueling before her plane disappeared. In 2021, the Nautilus will be in the South Pacific fulfilling a contract to map underwater American territories. The team now awaits DNA analysis of the specimen. Kimmerle spotted remnants of a female skull. Hiebert and Erin Kimmerle, a forensic anthropologist, visited the National Museum in Tarawa, Kiribati’s capital. ![]() Hiebert’s team is hoping to use new techniques to identify evidence of mitochondrial DNA with similarities to Earhart’s living relatives in the 22 soil samples they collected.īefore the expedition, Dr. It turned up other items from a castaway’s existence at the camp, but never any bones or DNA.ĭr. Since the 1980s, Tighar has conducted 12 expeditions to Nikumaroro in an effort to find more skeletal remains. Richard Jantz, director emeritus of the Forensic Anthropology Center at the University of Tennessee, determined that the bones most likely belonged to a woman, and that Earhart’s build was “more similar to the Nikumaroro bones than 99 percent of individuals in a large reference sample.” The bones were subsequently lost.ĭecades later, the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, or Tighar, tracked down the doctor’s analysis. Thirteen bones were gathered then and sent to a colonial doctor in Fiji, who determined they belonged to a European man. The camp, known as the Seven Site for its shape, was first noticed by a British officer in 1940. His team awaits DNA analysis on soil samples taken at a bivouac shelter found on the island. Fundis and their team’s return to the island will now depend on whether the archaeologists from the National Geographic Society came up with evidence that Earhart’s body was there.įredrik Hiebert, the society’s archaeologist in residence, has some leads. ![]() For instance, Panamerican Airway radio direction finders on Wake Island, Midway Atoll and Honolulu each picked up distress signals from Earhart and took bearings, which triangulated in the cluster of islands that includes Nikumaroro.įor years, many Earhart historians have been skeptical of the Nikumaroro theory. Fundis confess that other clues pointing to Nikumaroro have left them with lingering curiosity about whether Earhart crashed there. ![]() Ballard said, he felt he was adding “nail after nail after nail” to the coffin of the Nikumaroro hypothesis. Crew members even searched roughly four nautical miles out to sea, in case the plane lifted off the reef intact and glided underwater as it sank.Įach time a new search tactic yielded nothing, Dr. The crew mapped the mountain’s underwater drainage patterns and searched the gullies that might have carried plane fragments down slope, to a depth of 8,500 feet.
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