They were aiming for tiny Howland Island, 1.5km long and 800m wide, lying some 4023km to the east. Her last confirmed position came about a third of the way along the intended route, though, apparently, she was in contact with a US coastguard vessel waiting off Howland Island. But nothing more was seen or heard of the Electra and the two people on board.
The belief was that Earhart and Noonan, using navigational equipment far less sophisticated than today's, simply could not find Howland Island, and died when their plane crashed into the sea after its fuel ran out.
Gradually, largely as a result of the recovery group's efforts, the focus has shifted to Nikumaroro, in 1937 known as Gardner Island, in the Phoenix archipelago 320km southeast of Howland. Over the past two decades, tantalising clues have emerged that she and Noonan might have made it to Gardner, an atoll of 10sq km enclosing a lagoon, where they survived for a while before succumbing to exhaustion, lack of drinking water or disease, their bodies consumed by coconut crabs.
On Nikumaroro's northwest side, the recovery group has found artefacts, including a shattered mirror from a woman's make-up compact, parts of a folding pocket knife, traces of campfires and of American bottles pre-dating World War II. The island is uninhabited today, but from 1938-1963 was an experimental British colonial settlement, which might account for some of the items found.
Earhart was declared dead in 1939.
Ric Gillespie, the recovery group's executive director, said he came across a photograph of Nikumaroro taken in 1937 by a British expedition that - not linked to the Earhart mystery - was assessing the uninhabited island for potential settlement.
Gillespie said he saw what he thought was a simple "blob" on the picture. But after a closer analysis, he said he believed it showed landing gear from the Electra.
- Independent
