Aviator Amelia Earhart’s mysterious disappearance revealed

Amelia Earhart disappeared while trying to become the first woman to fly around the world. But her plane went missing near Howland Island in the Pacific Ocean in 1937. For nearly 90 years, the disappearance of Amelia Earhart has shocked the world, writes the Daily Mail.

Amelia Earhart was an American aviation pioneer who was a well-known international celebrity during her lifetime. Her accomplishments inspired an entire generation of female aviators, including over 1,000 women pilots in the Women’s Air Force Pilot Service who served during World War II. She was married to American publisher, writer and explorer George P. Putnam. At the age of 34, Earhart became the first female pilot to fly solo across the Atlantic. On May 20, 1932, she took off from Harbor Grace, Newfoundland with the last copy of the local newspaper confirming the departure date. She intended to fly to Paris in her single-engine Lockheed Vega 5B to replicate Charles Lindbergh’s solo flight. But after a flight of 14 hours and 56 minutes marred by strong winds and mechanical problems, she landed in a pasture in Northern Ireland.

Five years later, a female aviator challenged herself to become the first woman to fly around the world. In a Lockheed Model 10 Electra aircraft, the 39-year-old woman was heading to Howland Island when she and her navigator Fred Noonan are believed to have had problems with their radio navigation equipment.

No trace of her or her navigator, Fred Noonan, has ever been found, sparking a wave of ridiculous speculation, including the theory that she was shipwrecked on a remote island and eaten by giant crabs.

Then last year, scientific analysis shared with MailOnline revealed a series of hidden letters and numbers etched into an aluminum panel that washed ashore on Nikumaroro Island in the western Pacific Ocean near where Earhart’s plane went missing.

That researchers were close to solving one of the most enduring mysteries of the 20th century caused great excitement, but, unfortunately, now those hopes have been dashed – at least for the moment.

Careful analysis virtually confirmed that the panel did not belong to Amelia Earhart’s Lockheed Electra, but instead was part of a plane that crashed during World War II at least six years later.

However, not all is lost, the Daily Mail notes. The fact is that experts have released a new image, which is currently undergoing forensic examination, which, in their opinion, shows an engine cover buried under water near Nikumaroro, which could be from Earhart’s plane.

Rick Gillespie is the Executive Director of the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR), which has led the Earhart project for over three decades. He told MailOnline that a forensic imaging specialist is currently analyzing an underwater image taken during an expedition to Nikumaroro in 2009.

“There is an object in the photo that appears to be the engine hood of a Lockheed Electra,” Gillespie said. “The resemblance to the engine hood and driveshaft was only noticed many years later, and the exact location was not given at the time, which meant that attempts to re-locate the object were unsuccessful.”

If an examination shows that this is an engine cover from an Earhart plane, this will not guarantee that it will be possible to understand what happened to the famous female aviator. But it could help rule out some theories and reinforce others, including TIGHAR’s longstanding belief that Earhart and Noonan landed and ended up dying on Nikumaroro.

The group hoped that the aluminum panel would also confirm their hypothesis. It was thought that the object, which was discovered in 1991 and named 2-2-V-1, could be a metal patch that was added to Earhart’s aircraft during repairs in Miami as part of her ill-fated attempt to fly around the world.

Last year, scientists discovered letters and numbers invisible to the human eye that experts believe could be related to the production code. It was found that the letters and numbers “D24”, “XRO” and “335” or “385” were engraved into the aluminum panel. This led to desperate attempts by investigators and amateur sleuths alike to trace the origin of the hidden text, but the search was disappointing.

“Our imaging specialist Jeff Glickman is still working on his final report, but it looks like the 2-2-V-1 was taken from the upper wing of a WW2 Douglas C-47,” said Rick Gillespie. “Disappointing after so many years and so many promising similarities to the patch on Earhart’s Electra, but the science is what it is. It certainly has nothing to do with all the other evidence that points to Earhart in Nikumaroro.”

The experts determined that the letter “D”, as well as the letters “AD” on another part of the outer surface, were the remaining remains of the markings applied to the panel during its manufacture. They then discovered that Alcoa, an American company that has been manufacturing aluminum since 1888, used “ALCLAD 24S-T” to stamp some of its sheets.

When Earhart’s Elektra was built in early 1936, the aluminum sheet used by Lockheed was stamped “ALC24ST” – so the letters “LAD” were missing.

This meant that Alcoa’s designation would have changed to “ALCLAD 24S-T” by this time, which the researchers considered unlikely since “ALC24ST” was still in use until 1942.

Then, apparently in 1943, there was a switch to the new “ALCLAD” markings, leading experts to conclude that the panel washed ashore at Nikumaroro in all likelihood belonged to a World War II aircraft, and not Earhart’s Electra. .

As for the other text, the meaning of the handwritten letters “XRO” remains unclear, while experts are also puzzled by the numbers “335” or “385”.

One theory is that they may actually not exist at all and are in fact what is called the pareidolic illusion. This is a phenomenon in which the human mind wants to make sense of what the eyes see, so it creates a meaning that is not real. However, the researchers consider such an explanation “unlikely”, since three numbers in a row would seem like too much of a coincidence.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t the only blow to finding out what happened to Amelia Earhart. Bone fragments found on Nikumaroro three years after her disappearance raised hopes that they might belong to the aviator. World-renowned forensic anthropologist Erin Kimmerle used the fragments to reconstruct a skull that she believed belonged to a woman before sending the remains for DNA testing to determine if they matched any of Earthhart’s relatives.

However, a University of South Florida scientist confirmed to MailOnline that this was not the case. Despite these recent setbacks, Rick Gillespie remains optimistic about a potential engine hood opening. He also claims that there is scientific evidence that “conclusively leads Earhart to Nikumaroro”.

This includes: 57 radio distress calls heard over the course of five days, which Gillespie said could only have been sent from Earhart’s plane. As well as five Pan American Airways and US Coast Guard distress radio bearings that intersect at Nikumaroro. And a photograph showing the wreckage of the Lockheed Electra chassis on the reef at Nikumaroro, taken October 15, 1937

The mystery began in 1937 when Earhart and Noonan’s plane disappeared near Howland Island in the Pacific Ocean. Despite a 17-day rescue attempt that combed over 250,000 square miles of ocean, the couple was never found.

It is generally believed that their plane ran out of fuel and crashed into the sea, but some people dispute this.

Theories range from Amelia Earhart dying in a crash after her plane landed on Nikumaroro, to being captured by the Japanese and held hostage, or even posing as a different person and returning to the US.

The latter is based on an archival photograph showing Earhart and Noonan alive at a dock in the Marshall Islands, hundreds of miles from Howland.

As a definitive explanation remains painfully out of reach, various wild and wild theories will continue to rage until more concrete evidence emerges.

The aluminum panel and DNA analysis of the bone fragments may have come up with nothing, but perhaps an expert analysis of an image claimed to be the engine hood of Earhart’s plane will hold the key to the answers researchers yearn for. Until then, the search continues.