Is this a part of Amelia Earhart’s plane?

An aluminum scrap first found twenty-three years ago is now believed to have likely been part of Amelia Earhart’s plane.

The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) thinks the Artifact 2-2V-1 scrap, found on Nikumaroro, or Gardner Island, was used as a fill-in for a navigational window when Earhart stopped in Miami, Discovery News reported.

TIGHAR executive director Ric Gillespie told the news outlet ‘The Miami Patch was an expedient field repair. Its complex fingerprint of dimensions, proportions, materials and rivet patterns was as unique to Earhart’s Electra as a fingerprint is to an individual.’

The news outlet pointed out a photograph from the Miami Herald, which showed where the aluminum piece was set up before

Discovery News reported that TIGHARmembersfoundatWichita Air Services thatArtifact 2-2-V-1’s elements were a fit with the patch, and that it also fit a Lockheed Electra currently undergoing restoration. ‘This is the first time an artifact found on Nikumaroro has been shown to have a direct link toAmelia Earhart,’ Gillespie also said.

The scrap may indicate that Earhart and Fred Noonan, who navigated the plane, died on Nikumaroro, the website reported.

‘The many fractures, tears, dents and gouges found on this battered sheet of aluminum may be important clues to the fate and resting place of the Electra,’ Gillespie told the news outlet.

The landing gear for Earhart’s plane may have ended up in the water off Nikumaroro, going off of forensic imaging that was used on an archival 1937 photograph showing something in the water, according to the website.

It has also been suggested through sonar imagery that the fuselage is also in the water near the coast - and anotherTIGHAR trip to Nikumaroro is planned to take place in June of next year to see if more information can be discovered, the website said.

Gillespie also said that ‘Funding is being sought, in part, from individuals who will make a substantial contribution in return for a place on the expedition team.’

ELECTRAPLANE

Pilot: Amelia Earhart is seen in her Lockheed Electra in this 1936 (file photo)

Scrap: This piece of aluminum was found on Gardner Island in 1991 and may be a piece of Amelia Earhart’s Lockheed

Evidence: A photograph from The Miami Herald taken before Earhart went missing showed where the aluminum piece had been installed