Museum releases historical photos of island where Amelia Earhart may have crashed

Nearly 50 photographs from a 1938 New Zealand aerial survey of Nikumaroro Island have been released by the Air Force Museum of New Zealand. The black-and-white images, taken by an amphibious biplane, were published in response to increased interest in the disappearance of Amelia Earhart. Earhart, a renowned aviator, and her navigator, Fred Noonan, disappeared on July 2, 1937, while attempting to circumnavigate the globe at the equator.

The museum's archivist, Matthew O’Sullivan, discovered the negatives more than a decade ago. The images, described as a "goldmine" by Earhart's principal investigator, Ric Gillespie, provide new clues for amateur sleuths investigating the aviator's fate. The theory that Earhart ran out of fuel and was stranded on Nikumaroro, formerly known as Gardner Island, remains a leading hypothesis.

Since 1937, the search for Earhart and Noonan has been filled with false leads and complex scientific processes. Recently, archaeologists and scientists from Purdue University in Indianapolis are searching the island for the "Taraia Object," an elongated shape discovered in a lagoon in a 2020 satellite image. However, other long-time Earhart explorers are skeptical, suggesting it may be a fallen tree rather than her Lockheed Model 10-E Electra plane wreckage.