Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
The picture that ‘proves’ heroic Amelia Earhart survived plane crash and was kidnapped by the Japanese
COULD RIDDLE OF MISSING PILOT BE SOLVED?
SITTING on the dock is a figure with a startling resemblance to Amelia Earhart, whose disappearance over the Pacific 80 years ago remains shrouded in mystery. She has the same frame, the same short hair, and is wearing trousers – just as the trailblazing pilot did. Now experts believe this recently discovered photo proves she did not die in a plane crash in 1937 as previously believed. Instead they say it shows she was captured by the Japanese as she attempted to become the first female pilot to circumnavigate the globe, and died a prisoner of war. They claim a man on the left of the photo is her co-pilot Fred Noonan, and that their plane can be seen on a barge to the right. Former FBI assistant executive director Shawn Henry, who is privately investigating Earhart’s disappearance, said: “I’m looking at her sitting on the dock and thinking, ‘This is her’. “When you pull out and when you see the analysis that’s been done, I think it leaves no doubt to the viewers that that’s Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan.” Earhart, 37, and Noonan, 44, set off from the city of Lae in Papua New Guinea in a Lockheed Electra twinengine plane on July 2, 1937. But something went wrong on their way to Howland Island, where they had been due to refuel. Earhart – who was forced to land in a farmer’s field in Culmore, Co Derry in 1932 when weather hampered her bid to fly solo from Newfoundland to Paris – was declared dead two years later. Officials in her native US concluded she had crashed somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. But her remains were not found, and millions of pounds have since been spent on numerous expeditions trying to discover what happened to the pilot, writer and fashion designer who so inspired the women’s movement. Some claim she was captured as a spy, others that she somehow made it home
to America where she lived quietly to an old age in New Jersey. Now this image, found recently in a former “top secret” file in the US National Archives, could shed new light on the mystery. Mr Henry said: “I was originally sceptical until we could get the photograph authenticated. “The fact it came out of the National Archives as opposed to somebody’s basement or garage somewhere – that, to me, gave it a lot more credibility.” Investigators believe the photo was taken in the 1930s on the Marshall Islands, north west of Howland Island. Japan took over control of the Marshall Islands from Germany during the First World War and ahead of the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbour they became an important military post for Tokyo. Japanese archives have no record of Earhart as a prisoner – but such a record could have been lost. The black-andwhite 8in by 10in photograph was only rediscovered a few years ago in a mislabeled file at the National Archives. It was among a stack of 20 or 30 photos and had been ignored for months. But Les Kinney, a former US Treasury agent who began investigating Earhart’s disappearance after he retired, decided to take a closer look. In the photo, a figure with Earhart’s haircut and body type sits on the dock, facing away from the camera. Referring to the man on the left, facial recognition expert Ken Gibson, who studied the image, said “the hairline is the most distinctive characteristic”. He added: “It’s a very sharp receding hairline. The nose is very prominent. It’s my feeling that this is very convincing evidence that this is probably Noonan.” The image was released by the History Channel ahead of a documentary to be shown this weekend, called Amelia Earhart: The Lost Evidence. But rival researchers deny the photo shows Earhart and Noonan. They say the image forms part of a set captured after 1940, three years after the pair went missing. Investigator Mike Campbell lashed out at what he described as the “bogus photo claim”. Some remain convinced Earhart was forced to ditch her plane, insisting that traces of the pilot have been found which back up their claim. A mission is now under way to prove the theory as researchers make their way toward Nikumaroro, a coral atoll that is part of the Phoenix Islands of Kiribati. A Pennsylvaniabased organisation called the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) believes Earhart was forced to land there as her plane ran out of fuel. Injured but still alive after a crashlanding on what was then called Gardner Island, the pair attempted to call for help for several days using the radio from their wrecked plane, the team claims. Joining the team on the journey to Nikumaroro are four forensically trained border collies, whose mission is to sniff out human bones that, through DNA matching, would confirm Earhart and Noonan died castaways. The dogs – Berkeley, Piper, Marcy and Kayle – have been sponsored by National Geographic as part of TIGHAR’S eight-day expedition. The crew are also joined by experts divers whose job is to search for the Electra at sea, while the dogs do their work on land. TIGHAR believes that Earhart veered south of their planned flight path and landed on Nikumaroro before sending out distress signals. A high tide then washed the aircraft away, preventing Navy spotter planes that flew over the island from seeing the marooned pair. Parts of a skeleton that were found on Nikumaroro in 1940 were initially thought to have been Earhart’s but doctors at the time decided they belonged to a male body. A 1930s vanity case was also said to have been found on the tiny atoll.