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New photo suggests Amelia Earhart may have ended up in Marshall Islands

Rappler.com

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New photo suggests Amelia Earhart may have ended up in Marshall Islands
The photo has been buried in the US National Archives for decades

MANILA, Philippines – Legendary aviator Amelia Earhart’s disappearance in 1937 has baffled people for decades, but new photo evidence has emerged suggesting that she may not have gone missing at all, and instead wound up on the Marshall Islands. (READ: Debris revives hope of finding Amelia Earhart plane)

The photo was recovered from the National Archives by retired federal agent Les Kinney for an upcoming documentary on the History Channel. The photo shows a scene at a dock, with several boats, people sitting by the water, and a barge in the distance. Markings stamped on the photo read “Marshall Islands, Jaluit Atoll, Jaluit Island, Jaluit Harbor.” (READ: Short ‘last’ film of Amelia Earhart surfaces)

Kinney places the date of the photo at some time before 1943, History Channel said.

In the documentary, forensic analysts Doug Carner and Kent Gibson confirmed the authenticity of the photo, and identified the ship in the photo as the Koshu Maru, a Japanese army vessel.

Gibson said that it is “very likely” that two people in the photo – a woman sitting by the dock and one of the men standing behind her – could be Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan.

Earhart vanished without a trace over the Pacific Ocean on July 2, 1937, just as she was about to complete a groundbreaking circumnavigation of the globe in a twin-engine Lockheed Electra aircraft.

A widely held theory holds that Earhart, along with Noonan, crashed into the Pacific after the plane ran out of fuel. However, no remains of Earhart, Noonan, or the plane were ever found.

The newly-recovered photo is in line with another theory suggesting that Earhart and Noonan ended up in the Marshall Islands after crashing, and were then taken away on the Koshu Maru by the Japanese military, who held them as prisoners in Saipan where they ultimately died.

The theory is based on Marshall Islanders’ claims that they saw the Electra land and witnessed Earhart and Noonan being taken into Japanese custody. – Rappler.com

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