Amelia Earhart's sad demise

Dozens heard Amelia Earhart's final, chilling pleas for help, researchers say

Distilled from 2 posts in the  Washington Post and the Web

Amelia Earhart waded into the Pacific Ocean and climbed into her downed and disabled Lockheed Electra. The famous aviator started the engine, turned on the two-way radio and sent out a plea for help, one more desperate than previous messages.

The high tide was getting higher, she had realised. Soon it would suck the plane into deeper water, cutting Earhart off from civilisation - and any chance of rescue.

Aviator Amelia Earhart's cries for help were heard by people who just happened to be listening to their radios at the right time.
Across the world, a 15-year-old girl listening to the radio in St Petersburg, Florida transcribed some of the desperate phrases she heard: "waters high," "water's knee deep - let me out" and "help us quick."
A  housewife in Toronto heard a shorter message, but it was no less dire: "We have taken in water . . . we can't hold on much longer."

On July 2, 1937, just after Earhart's plane disappeared, the US Navy put out an "all ships, all stations" bulletin.

That harrowing scene, the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) believes, was probably one of the final moments of Earhart's life. The group put forth the theory in a paper that analyses radio distress calls heard in the days after Earhart disappeared.

In the summer of 1937, she had sought to become the first woman to circumnavigate the globe. Instead, TIGHAR's theory holds, she ended up marooned on a desert island, radioing for help.

Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, could only call for help when the tide was so low it wouldn't flood the engine, TIGHAR theorised. That limited their pleas for help to a few hours each night.

It wasn't enough, TIGHAR director Ric Gillespie told The Washington Post, and the pair died as castaways.

But those radio messages form a historical record - evidence that Gillespie says runs counter to the US Navy's official conclusion that Earhart and Noonan died shortly after crashing into the Pacific Ocean.

"These active versus silent periods and the fact that the message changes on July 5 and starts being worried about water and then is consistently worried about water after that - there's a story there," Gillespie said.

"We're feeding it to the public in bite-sized chunks. I'm hoping that people will smack their foreheads like I did."

Some of Earhart's final messages were heard by members of the military and others looking for Earhart, Gillespie said.

Others caught the attention of people who just happened to be listening to their radios when they stumbled across random pleas for help.

Almost all of those messages were discounted by the US Navy, which concluded that Earhart's plane went down somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, then sank to the seabed.

Gillespie has been trying to debunk that finding for three decades. He believes that Earhart spent her final days on then-uninhabited Gardner Island.

She may have been injured, Noonan was probably worse, but the crash wasn't the end of them.

On July 2, 1937, just after Earhart's plane disappeared, the US Navy put out an "all ships, all stations" bulletin, TIGHAR wrote.Authorities asked anyone with a radio and a trained ear to listen in to the frequencies she had been using on her trip, 3105 and 6210 kilohertz.

It was not an easy task. The Electra's radio was designed to communicate only within a few hundred kilometres. The Pacific Ocean is much bigger. The searchers listening to Earhart's frequencies heard a carrier wave, which indicated that someone was speaking, but most heard nothing more than that.

Others heard what they interpreted to be a crude attempt at Morse code.But thanks to the scientific principle of harmonics, TIGHAR says, others heard much more.

In addition to the primary frequencies, "the transmitter also put out 'harmonics (multiples)' of those wavelengths," the paper says. "High harmonic frequencies 'skip' off the ionosphere and can carry great distances, but clear reception is unpredictable."

That means Earhart's cries for help were heard by people who just happened to be listening to their radios at the right time.

According to TIGHAR's paper:

"Scattered across North America and unknown to each other, each listener was astonished to suddenly hear Amelia Earhart pleading for help. They alerted family members, local authorities or local newspapers. Some were investigated by government authorities and found to be believable. Others were dismissed at the time and only recognised many years later.

Although few in number, the harmonic receptions provide an important glimpse into the desperate scene that played out on the reef at Gardner Island."

The tide probably forced Earhart and Noonan to hold to a schedule. Seek shelter, shade and food during the sweltering day, then venture out to the craft at low tide, to try the radio again.

Back in the United States, people heard things, tidbits that pointed at trouble.

On July 3, for example, Nina Paxton, an Ashland, Kentucky, woman, said she heard Earhart say "KHAQQ calling," and say she was "on or near little island at a point near" . . . "then she said something about a storm and that the wind was blowing....Will (or We'll ) have to get out of here," she says at one point. "We can't stay here long."

What happened to Earhart after that has vexed the world for nearly 81 years, and TIGHAR is not the only group to try to explain the mystery. Gillespie is just one member of competing researchers who have dedicated their time and resources to one of aviation's greatest mysteries.

Mike Campbell, a retired journalist who wrote Amelia Earhart: The Truth at Last, insists along with others that Earhart and Noonan were captured in the Marshall Islands by the Japanese, who thought they were American spies, and died in Japanese custody after being tortured.

Elgen Long, a Navy combat veteran and an expert on Earhart's disappearance, wrote a book saying her plane crashed into the Pacific and sank.

Gillespie said he believes that evidence supporting his Gardner Island theory is adding up.

He believes that the messages sent out over those six days were by Earhart and, occasionally, Noonan. He believes that bones found on Gardner island in 1940 belonged to Earhart, but were misidentified and discarded.

He believes that Amelia Earhart died marooned on an island after her plane was sucked into the Pacific Ocean. But he realises that the public needs more than his tide tables and extrapolations from data that predates World War II.

"We're up against a public that wants a smoking gun," he told The Post.

"We know the public wants, demands, something simple. And we're also very much aware that we live in a time of rampant science denial. Nobody does nuance anymore."

Bones discovered on a Pacific island in Kiribati 'belong to Amelia Earhart'

Amelia Earhart's story is revolutionary: She was the first woman to fly alone across the Atlantic Ocean, and might have been the first to fly around the world had her plane not vanished over the Pacific Ocean in 1937. After decades of mystery surrounding her disappearance, her story might come to a close.

A scientific study claims that bones found in 1940 on the Pacific Island of Nikumaroro belong to Earhart, despite a forensic analysis of the remains conducted in 1941 that linked the bones to a male.
The bones, revisited in the study Amelia Earhart and the Nikumaroro Bones by University of Tennessee professor Richard Jantz, were discarded. For decades they have remained an enigma, as some have speculated that Earhart died a castaway on the island after her plane crashed.

Nikumaroro, or Gardner Island, is part of the Phoenix Islands, Kiribati in the western Pacific Ocean.

The bones were uncovered by a British expedition exploring the island for settlement after they came upon a human skull, according to the study. The expedition's officer ordered a more thorough search of the area, which resulted in the discovery of several other bones and part of what appeared to be a woman's shoe. Other items found included a box made to hold a Brandis Navy Surveying Sextant that had been manufactured around 1918 and a bottle of Benedictine, an herbal liqueur.
"There was suspicion at the time that the bones could be the remains of Amelia Earhart," Jantaz wrote in the study.

When the 13 bones were shipped to Fiji and studied by Dr D W Hoodless of the Central Medical School the following year, Jantz argues that it is likely that forensic osteology - the study of bones - was still in its early stages, which therefore affected his assessment of which sex the remains belonged to. Jantz, in attempting to compare the lost bones with Earhart's bones, co-developed a computer program that estimated sex and ancestry using skeletal measurements. The program, Fordisc, is commonly used by forensic anthropologists across the globe.

Jantz compared the lengths of the bones to Earhart's measurements, using her height, weight, body build, limb lengths and proportions, based on photographs and information found on her pilot's and driver's licenses. His findings revealed that Earhart's bones were "more similar to the Nikumaroro bones than 99  of individuals in a large reference sample."

"In the case of the Nikumaroro bones, the only documented person to whom they may belong is Amelia Earhart," Jantz wrote in the study.

Earhart's disappearance has long captivated the public, and theories involving her landing on Nikumaroro have emerged in recent years. Retired journalist Mike Campbell, who authored Amelia Earhart: The Truth at Last, has maintained with others that Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, were captured in the Marshall Islands by the Japanese, who thought they were American spies. He believes they were tortured and died in custody.

But Ric Gillespie, director of the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) spoke to The Washington Post's Cleve R. Wootson Jr. in 2016 about how he too believes the bones found on Nikumaroro belong to Earhart.

In 1998, the group took Hoodless' measurements of the Nikumaroro bones and analysed them through a robust anthropological database. They determined the bones belonged to a taller-than-average woman of European descent - perhaps Earhart, who at 5 feet 7 (170cm) to 5 feet 8 (172.7cm), was several inches taller than the average woman.

In 2016, the group brought the measurements to Jeff Glickman, a forensic examiner, who located a photo of Earhart from Lockheed Aircraft that showed her with her arms exposed. It appeared, based on educated guesses, that Earhart's upper arm bone corresponded with one of the Nikumaroro bones.

Glickman, who is now a member of TIGHAR, told The Washington Post at the time that he understands some might be skeptical about his findings, as they were based 76-year-old medical notes. But the research made clear, he said, that Earhart died on Nikumaroro.

Soviet Douglas A-20 Havoc (re) discovered in Siberia - The history

U.S. World War II Havoc A-20 Bomber Found in Siberia: 

The Moscow Times Jul. 23 2014

An American military aircraft lost 71 years ago over western Siberia was discovered in the Taiga, Russian environmentalists said.The wreck of a Soviet Douglas A-20 Havoc recently re-emerged in the Taiga of western Siberia in Russia. Apparently the lend-lease medium bomber, one of roughly 3400 of the type given to the Soviet Union, went down on its ferry flight from Alaska to the Eastern Front in 1943 flying from Alaska over the ALSIB (Alaska-Siberia) air ferry route. The Taiga is a vast  forest which is largely uninhabited, and buried under snow and ice for much of the year.

No photographs have surfaced publicly as of yet, the aircraft (technically designated a DB-7) apparently went down on the slopes of Zelyonaya mountain in the Kemerovo region. Sadly, it appears that the un-named Soviet ferry crew perished in the wartime crash. The aircraft’s serial number is not known currently, but the fuselage bears the markings “F216″, so finding its true identity should not pose too great a problem for researchers.

The Soviet Union received more than $11 billion worth of supplies and military equipment from its U.S. ally over the course of the war. The wreckage of the lost DB-7 was initially discovered by a hunter in 1966, but after leaving the aircraft, he was unable to retrace his steps in order to find it again.

The search continued for 48 more years until the bomber was finally discovered in the Kuznetsky Alatau wildlife reserve, according to the reserve's official site.

It remained unclear what caused the crash. No hostilities took place in Siberia, but the heavily loaded bomber could have failed to fly over the mountain in cloudy weather, the report said.
Aircraft incoming from Alaska were manned by Soviet crews. The DB-7 had a crew of four, whose names remain unknown.

What will happen with the wreck is not public knowledge, but hopefully a recovery team will locate and identify the crew’s remains for burial. Given the remoteness of the location, the wreck seems likely to stay where it is for the meantime though.

Inhospitable Taiga forest terrain

The Douglas A-20 Havoc (company designation DB-7) was an American attack, light bomber, intruder and night fighter aircraft of World War II. It served with several Allied air forces, principally the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF), the Soviet Air Forces (VVS), Soviet Naval Aviation (AVMF) and the Royal Air Force (RAF) of the United Kingdom. Soviet units received more than one in three (2,908 aircraft) of the DB-7s ultimately built. It was also used by the air forces of Australia, South Africa, France, and the Netherlands during the war, and by Brazil afterwards.

In British Commonwealth air forces, bomber/attack variants of the DB-7 were usually known by the service name Boston, while night fighter and intruder variants were usually known as Havoc. An exception to this was the Royal Australian Air Force, which referred to all variants of the DB-7 by the name Boston. The USAAF referred to night fighter variants as P-70.

 

Operational history

France
The French order called for substantial modifications, resulting in the DB-7 (for Douglas Bomber 7) variant. It had a narrower, deeper fuselage, 1,000 hp (746 kW) Pratt & Whitney R-1830-SC3-G radials, French-built guns, and metric instruments. Midway through the delivery phase, engines were switched to 1,100 hp (820 kW) Pratt & Whitney R-1830-S3C4-G. The French designation was DB-7 B-3 (the B-3 signifying "three-seat bomber").

The DB-7s were shipped in sections to Casablanca for assembly and service in France and French North Africa. When the Germans attacked France and the Low Countries on 10 May 1940, the 64 available DB-7s were deployed against the advancing Germans. Before the armistice they were evacuated to North Africa to avoid capture by German forces.

French DB7s being assembled

Here, they fell under control of the Vichy government, but saw practically no action against the Allies except briefly during the Allied invasion of North Africa. After French forces in North Africa had sided with the Allies, DB-7s were used as trainers and were replaced in front line units by Martin B-26 Marauders. In early 1945, a few DB-7s were moved back to France where they saw action against the remaining isolated German pockets on the western coast.

British Commonwealth
The remainder of the order which was to have been delivered to France was instead taken up by the UK. In the course of the war, 24 squadrons operated the Boston. It first entered service with RAF Bomber Command in 1941, equipping No. 88 Squadron.

Their first operational use was not until February 1942 against enemy shipping. On 4 July 1942 United States Army Air Force (USAAF) bomber crews, flying RAF Boston aircraft, took part in operations in Europe for the first time attacking enemy airfields in the Netherlands. They replaced the Bristol Blenheims of No. 2 Group RAF for daylight operations against occupied Europe until replaced in turn by de Havilland Mosquitos.

Some Havocs were converted to Turbinlite aircraft which replaced the nose position with a powerful searchlight. The Turbinlite aircraft would be brought onto an enemy fighter by ground radar control.

The onboard radar operator would then direct the pilot until he could illuminate the enemy. At that point a Hawker Hurricane fighter accompanying the Turbinlite aircraft would make the attack. Unfortunately this also made the aircraft a target. The Turbinlite squadrons were disbanded in early 1943.

Soviet Union
Through Lend-Lease, Soviet forces received more than two-thirds of version A-20B planes manufactured and a significant portion of versions G and H. The A-20 was the most numerous foreign aircraft in the Soviet bomber inventory. The Soviet Air Force had more A-20s than the USAAF.

They were delivered via the ALSIB (Alaska-Siberia) air ferry route. The aircraft had its baptism of fire at the end of June 1942. The Soviets were dissatisfied with the four Browning machine guns and replaced them with faster-firing ShKAS. During the summer 1942, the Bostons flew low-level raids against German convoys heavily protected by flak. Attacks were made from altitudes right down to 33 ft (10 metres) and the air regiments suffered heavy losses.

 By mid-1943 Soviet pilots were well familiar with the A-20B and A-20C. The general opinion was that the aircraft was overpowered and therefore fast and agile. It could make steep turns with an angle of up to 65°, while the tricycle landing gear facilitated take-off and landings. The type could be flown even by scarcely trained crews. The engines were reliable but rather sensitive to low temperature, so the Soviet engineers developed special covers for keeping propeller hubs from freezing up.

Some of these aircraft were armed with fixed-forward cannons and found some success in the ground attack role. By the end of the war, 3,414 A-20s had been delivered to the USSR, 2,771 of which were used by the Soviet Air Force.

American-built Douglas A-20C Havocs being loaded onto a cargo ship for transport to the Soviet Union. They were welded to the deck to prevent loss in heavy seas.

The scow with two planes on it, the Lillian E. Petrie, was damaged in an accident Long Island in November 1943. While the Arctic Convoys were more dangerous and captured the public's attention, much more supplies were sent through Iran and across the Pacific. Ships carrying Lend-Lease supplies would transit from New York, New York to Capetown, South Africa and terminate in Bandar Shahpur, Iran or Basra, Iraq.

In 1941-1942 most supplies went through the North Sea, because the Soviets did not want a large Anglo-American presence on their border. It took time to develop the "Persian Corridor" to receive substantial supplies, because only one dock in each terminus could handle large ships and the Tehran-Soviet railways lacked capacity. The railway from Bandar Shahpur to Tehran and then the Soviet Union was light rail through mountains. As late as 1944 supplies ordered (and delivered) in 1942 were still waiting for transit to the Soviet Union. The British took over the railroad, but the delivery of rolling stock and engines from the United States was delayed. The Americans took over the administration of the Persian Corridor in 1944, when their industrial output was reaching its zenith. By July, the peak month of deliveries, 282,097 long tons (286623.8 metric tons) came through the Persian Corridor.

2,771 A-20s were delivered to the Soviet Union through Lend-Lease. The A-20C was an attempt to standardize British and American versions. Developed for foreign markets, it was designated the A-20C by the United States Army Air Force and the Boston IIIA by the United Kingdom's Royal Air Force. Douglas built 808 at their Santa Monica plant and Boeing Aircraft built 140 A-20Cs under license.

Much of the Lend-Lease order for the United Kingdom was sent to the Soviet Union. When the United States entered the war, they took over many A-20Cs to start training; the Americans rarely, if ever, used the C model in combat. However, because the variant could carry a torpedo, it was effective as a surface raider with the Soviet Air Force.

Was MH370 a Ghost Flight?

Did MH370 Fly on autopilot until its fuel ran out?

Theories abound about what happened to MH370 and why it (probably at this stage) ended up in the drink. Having discussed the situation with experienced pilots and ATC crew, I started wondering if sudden incapacitation had overcome the pilots while they were still entering co-ordinates for a return to the closest Malaysian Airport capable of allowing a 777 to land (Langkawi Island)

My theory (and that of others, by the look of things) was that some catastrophic event rendered both pilots and crew unconscious or dead, (likely the same fate for the passangers) and the plane simply flew on on the programmed heading, on autopilot, until the fuel simply ran out. Pilot suicide in this fashion simply makes no sense to me. I think it was a ghost flight:

It would have taken less than a minute for the pilots, passengers and crew aboard MH370 to lose consciousness and have their fate sealed if the cabin experienced a catastrophic loss of pressure and became what is known as a "ghost flight".

It would not be the first time that a flight has flown for hours with all those on board unconscious before crashing. Opinion from the Sydney Morning Herald:

Payne Stewart :

In 1999, American golfer Payne Stewart was among six people on a Learjet that took off from Orlando, Florida bound for Dallas, Texas who died after a sudden loss of cabin pressure deprived them of oxygen.

Despite the pilots being incapacitated, the plane flew on auto-pilot for a further four hours before running out of fuel and crashing into a field in South Dakota, more than 2250 kilometres off-course.

Six minutes into the flight, the alarm was raised and the Learjet was monitored by two F16- fighters but nothing could be done to save the plane.

Helios Airways Flight 522

Flight 522, a Boeing 737, was initially feared hijacked in 2005 when it crashed into a mountain in Greece leaving 121 dead. A crash investigation revealed that the pilots had succumbed to hypoxia and had mistaken a pressure warning signal and lights for other safety alerts.

A flight attendant who had pilot training and was able to stay conscious, tried unsuccessfully to control the plane before also passing out. The plane stayed in the air for two more hours before running out of fuel and crashing. Autopsies found that the passengers had been alive but could not establish whether they were conscious at the time of the crash.

WA mine workers

Five years earlier, in 2000, a Beechcraft King Air 200 took off from Perth to transport workers to a mine in Leonora but after less than 30 minutes began to climb too high, setting off alarms with air traffic controllers. The pilot asked the control room to "stand by" and then, it was later concluded, promptly passed out from hypoxia.

Air traffic controllers could do nothing but watch as the plane, transporting mine workers, flew across the country on auto-pilot for about five hours before running out of fuel and crashing in Queensland, killing all eight people on the plane.

Bo Rein

In 1980, a football coach Bo Rein and pilot Louis Benscotter were aboard a twin-engine Cessna 441 in Louisiana when it inexplicably began climbing above its planned flight path's altitude and lost all contact.

The plane flew on for more than 1600 kilometres, apparently on auto-pilot, before crashing into the Atlantic Ocean. Investigators believed a problem with the plane's oxygen supply had rendered the pair unconscious.

Hypoxia

1. How long would someone have to put on an oxygen mask before passing out?

University of New South Wales head of School of Aviation Jason Middleton said that at 35,000 feet a person would have a minute or less to put on an oxygen mask before becoming unconscious.

2. How much oxygen would be available?

Passenger oxygen masks automatically drop if there is a loss of cabin pressure. Professor Middleton said passengers would have about 10 minutes supply of oxygen while the pilots descended to 10,000 feet as quickly as possible, at which point it is safe to breathe without an oxygen supply.

Professor Middleton said MH370s' pilots would have had enough oxygen for about 30 minutes. But he said it had been shown that stress could make people consume oxygen four to five times faster than if they were calm. Crew also have access to portable oxygen tanks that allow them to move within the cabin and help passengers.

3. How long can auto-pilot work for?

An Australian commercial pilot, who did not want to be named, said the auto-pilot system would work until a plane's fuel ran out. The pilot said when the engines began to fail from lack of fuel, a system that is powered by air would keep the plane going for a short time longer before finally crashing.

4. Would those on board have known if there was a loss of cabin pressure?

The commercial pilot said if there was a loss of pressure in the plane the first thing a pilot would do would be to don their oxygen masks, which would take three to four seconds.

They dismissed some MH370 theories that had suggested the pilots may not have put on their oxygen masks to ensure they could see if there was smoke from a fire, as pilots' oxygen masks have smoke hoods and can be purged to ensure their vision is kept clear.

The pilot said if there was a slow leak there would be numerous warning signs, including a loud siren if the plane got to 10,000 feet without enough pressure. They said there was no way the pilots could have flown without being aware that there had been a loss of pressure and even if there was an explosion of some sort, the pilots could hold their breath while making a rapid descent.

Professor Middleton said making an emergency descent due to depressurisation was part of standard training for commercial pilots. Checking oxygen supplies is also a mandatory part of pre-flight safety checks.

But wait, it gets worse:

Of all the various theories to have emerged about the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, this could be the most terrifying yet: 

Aviation experts have raised the possibility that, if the flight's pilots had become incapacitated, the passengers and cabin crew may have flown for seven hours aware that there was a problem but unable to raise the alarm .

That's because the reinforced cockpit door, designed for maximum security, would have stopped staff or passengers from getting into the cockpit to make contact with the outside world. 

No emergency communication system existed in the cabin of the plane, Fairfax Media has been told. Mobile phones may have been out of range, and the satellite phones which existed in business class could have been disabled, either purposefully or accidentally, by the same incident that eliminated the plane's tracking systems.

''There are no communications available from the cabin to the ground ... only from the cockpit," said Professor Jason Middleton, head of University of New South Wales School of Aviation.

Professor Middleton said post 9-11 security measures meant passengers and crew were isolated from the outside world if a plane's pilots were out of action, whether by their own or someone else's intention or through some sort of emergency.

''It's the modern world [that says] the only way to protect against illegal activities and hijacking is for the pilots to be safely ensconced so no one can get at them and no one can get at the systems.''

Professor Middleton said the approach usually worked but that so far flight MH370 had proved to be an "unprecedented case".

The flight path of the doomed Malaysia Airlines jet, established by British satellite company Inmarsat through the plane's "ping" data, has shown that it flew for more than seven hours after it turned back from its scheduled flight path over the South China Sea on March 8.

An Australian commercial pilot, who did not want to be named, said flight MH370 would have had a reinforced cockpit door for security reasons. If the crew could not access the cockpit they would have been helpless without the pilots. "There is no way they could raise the alarm," he said.

American airline pilot and aviation author and blogger Patrick Smith also told Fairfax Media that if for any reason the pilots were unconscious or incommunicado, there would have been no way the for the crew to tell anyone.

There has been much speculation as to why no phone calls or messages were received from passengers or crew on the missing flight. But Smith said the lack of calls did not necessarily support the theory because unless a plane was flying low and within range of a mobile phone tower, mobile phones would not work.

Vincent Lau, an electronics professor specialising in wireless communications at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, also told the New York Times that the altitude of the plane might have meant mobile phones could not connect with ground stations.

According to the Malaysia Airlines website, in-flight entertainment systems in business class on a Boeing 777-200, the model of flight MH370, are equipped with satellite phones.

Smith said that this entertainment system could, however, be disabled as was the jet's transponder and Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS). No one yet knows how and why these systems were not working.

Did Amelia Earhart end up a cast-away?

Amelia Earhart: A castaway?

Photos unearthed by a Christchurch archivist could help finally solve a 75-year-old mystery: what happened to Amelia Earhart?

Amelia Mary Earhart ( July 24, 1897 – disappeared July 2, 1937) was an American aviation pioneer and author.Earhart was the first female pilot to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.She received the U.S. Distinguished Flying Cross for this record.She set many other records,[ wrote best-selling books about her flying experiences and was instrumental in the formation of The Ninety-Nines, an organization for female pilots. During an attempt to make a circum-navigational flight of the globe in 1937 in a Lockheed Model 10 Electra, Earhart disappeared over the central Pacific Ocean near Howland Island. Fascination with her life, career and disappearance continues to this day.

Tall, slender, blonde and brave, Earhart disappeared while flying over the Pacific Ocean on July 2, 1937 in a record attempt to fly around the world at the equator. Her final resting place has long been a mystery.

For years, Richard Gillespie, TIGHAR's executive director and author of the book "Finding Amelia," and his crew have been searching the Nikumaroro island for evidence of Earhart. A tiny coral atoll, Nikumaroro was some 300 miles southeast of Earhart's target destination, Howland Island.

A number of artifacts recovered by TIGHAR would suggest that Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, made a forced landing on the island's smooth, flat coral reef.

According to Gillespie, who is set to embark on a new $500,000 Nikumaroro expedition next summer, the two became castaways and eventually died there.

"We know that in 1940 British Colonial Service officer Gerald Gallagher recovered a partial skeleton of a castaway on Nikumaroro. Unfortunately, those bones have now been lost," Gillespie said.

The archival record by Gallagher suggests that the bones were found in a remote area of the island, in a place that was unlikely to have been seen during an aerial search.

A woman's shoe, an empty bottle and a sextant box whose serial numbers are consistent with a type known to have been carried by Noonan were all found near the site where the bones were discovered.

"The reason why they found a partial skeleton is that many of the bones had been carried off by giant coconut crabs. There is a remote chance that some of the bones might still survive deep in crab burrows," Gillespie said.

Although she did not succeed in her around-the-world expedition, Earhart flew off into the legend just after her final radio transmission.

The photos found by Matthew O'Sullivan, the keeper of photographs at the Air Force Museum in Christchurch, could prove Earhart spent her final days as a castaway on a remote island north of New Zealand, and that she didn't, as some believe, die in a plane crash.

Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan were last seen taking off in her twin-engine Lockheed Electra on July 2, 1937, from Papua New Guinea en route to tiny Howland Island, some 2500 miles away in the central Pacific.

Radio contact with her plane was lost after she reported running low on fuel hours later, and the massive sea-and-air search that followed was unsuccessful.

Earhart's plane was presumed to have gone down, but it has never been known whether she survived, and if so, for how long.

The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (Tighar) has long theorised that after Earhart's plane went off course while en-route to Howland Island, the pair made a safe landing on a reef near Nikumaroro Island in Kiribati, previously Gardner Island, and made it safely to shore, living out the rest of their days as castaways.

O'Sullivan said he was first contacted by Tighar about 10 years ago seeking information on the Pacific Islands and sea-plane landing areas nearby in their ongoing bid to explain Earhart's disappearance.

Another request from the group for photos about a month ago had O'Sullivan thinking about Gardner Island again, and while he was rifling through his collection on an unrelated request, he unearthed photographic gold.

''I was looking through my registry of aerial films and there was this entry saying 'unnamed atoll' and I just thought, 'Well, I'm there having a look, I might as well have a look at this one as well','' he said.

After notifying Tighar of his find, the group responded the next day, telling O'Sullivan he had discovered the ''complete set of aerial obliques taken on December 1, 1938'' by an aircraft taking photos for the New Zealand Pacific Aviation Survey.

They believe the photos show where Earhart's plane went down, two years later.

A representative from Tighar was now organising a trip to New Zealand with a forensic imaging specialist to conduct further research, O'Sullivan said.

While the find ''wasn't a big deal'' to O'Sullivan, he acknowledged the implications it could have on a mystery that has plagued researchers for over 75 years.