John Fray on Monday, Jan. 27, 2025, 2:00 AM
THE WRECKAGE OF AMELIA EARHART'S PLANE HAS
BEEN PINPOINTED ON NIKUMARORO ISLAND.
In 2020, a web sleuth was examining satellite images
of Nikumaroro Island. He discovered something there
which should not have been. In the lagoon, multiple long
metal objects were plainly visible on its east side,
directly across from the channel leading to the ocean.
Word got around, resulting
in an intense effort to examine images dating as far back
as 1937. Sure enough, the objects appeared, to varying
degrees of clarity, in the archived images. As it turns
out, a typhoon in 2015 caused the objects to be revealed
from their mucky resting places long enough for the image
which the web sleuth discovered in 2020 to be snapped.
An expedition is planned for this year to make
positive identification of the aircraft. As far as I am
concerned, the mystery is solved. On July 2, 1937, Amelia
Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan landed on Nikumaroro
where they survived as castaways for at least five days
before perishing.
The above image shows the Taraia Peninsula on the lagoon.
Two long, blurry images can be seen in the water. They are
the fuselage and rear wings of the plane. For reference,
there is an overlay of scale sketches of those two components
of the plane.
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