Newly discovered photos could shed light on fate of Amelia Earhart's plane

Newly discovered dating back to 1938 could reveal what happened to Amelia Earhart's plane - with a mysterious object on a remote island pointing to a possible sighting of the aircraft.

Researchers claim the anomaly provides "very strong" evidence that it may be Earhart's missing plane. The pilot vanished over the central Pacific Ocean on July 2, 1937, while attempting to circumnavigate the globe along with her navigator, Fred Noonan.

The pair were on their way to Howland Island when their radio communications failed, and were never seen again. Now, researchers are investigating a metal object located underwater in a lagoon on the island of Nikumaroro.

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It was spotted in newly discovered images taken a year after the pioneer aviator disappeared 88 years ago. Scientists believe the "Taraia Object" is Earhart's famous Lockheed 10-E Electra, according to Purdue University in Indiana.

A crew of 15 researchers from Purdue and the Archeological Legacy Institute (ALI) will head to the island between Hawaii and Fiji on November 4 to inspect what they think is the main body and tail of the missing plane. "Finding Amelia Earhart’s aircraft would be the discovery of a lifetime," says ALI executive director Dr Richard Pettigrew - who has long believed Nikumaroro is where Earhart's plane has been since.

"Other evidence already collected by The International Group of Historic Aircraft Recovery establishes an extremely persuasive, multifaceted case that the final destination for Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, was on Nikumaroro. Confirming the plane wreckage there would be the smoking-gun proof."

The three-week mission will zero in on the "Taria Object" - a strange object first seen in 2015 satellite images on the north shore of the Nikumaroro lagoon. "A successful identification would be the first step toward fulfilling Amelia's original plan to return the Electra to West Lafayette after her historic flight," Steve Schultz, senior vice president and general counsel at Purdue University, said.

"Additional work would still be needed to accomplish that objective, but we feel we own it to her legacy which remains so strong at Purdue, to try to find a way to bring it home."

A major 16-day long search was launched by the US Navy and Coast Guard following Earheart and Noonan's disappearance. But with no success, Earhart was officially declared dead on January 5, 1939. Several more attempts were made to find her, with millions of dollars spent over nine decades, but neither Earhart’s remains nor the wreckage have ever been located.

The latest million-dollar expedition by Tony Romeo and his Deep Sea Vision team found a sonar image initially believed to be Earhart's plane, but further investigation revealed it was a natural rock formation, not the Lockheed Electra.

Last month, US President Donald Trump announced he would declassify and release government records tied to Earhart and her final flight.