She was thought to have disappeared somewhere in the Pacific Ocean attempting the first round-the-world flight by a woman. But new evidence is now pointing to a different end to the famed pilot. Amelia Earhart, who it could be argued was one of the world’s first female adventure athletes, died in a Japanese prison in the Marshall Islands, according to a new theory.
A previously lost photograph–or stowed away until eternity- was found buried in a file in the National Archives (National Archives and Records Administration) and apparently shows Earhart, sitting on a dock, looking forlornly towards a barge that could possibly be towing her wrecked plane, while her navigator, Fred Noonan, looks directly at the camera. Noonan might come under new criticism now as investigators try to figure out why the team was so off course in their mission.
The photo has been analyzed by numerous experts. While grainy, and some could argue, inconclusive, the analysis does seem legit as they compared the navigator’s hairline and the pilot’s body structure against other photos with convincing results. The new discovery, and research and investigation around it, will run in a History Channel special Sunday: “Amelia Earhart: The Lost Evidence.”
Earhart’s attempted route from newspaper archives.
Earhart was last heard from in correspondence July 2, 1937, and was declared dead two years later by the U.S. government. The photo brings to life some serious questions about the mission (Earhart’s second attempt). It was possibly taken by a U.S. spy who was embedded in the region as Japan moved its empire further into the Pacific on the brink of World War II. So did the American government know about the photo? Did they know about Earhart? And how did she end up in the Marshall Islands when they were apparently last heard from near Howland Island on their way to the Hawaiian chain (the Marshalls are still further north, and seemingly behind the flight crew after their last transmission). The evidence is intriguing, leaving a myriad questions unanswered.
See Amelia Earhart’s attempted route, here.
