Picture Unearthed At The Miami Herald Shows Aluminum Patch On Earhart's Lockheed Electra

An 80-year-old photograph recently recovered from the archives of the Miami Herald newspaper may be a key clue into solving the mystery of the disappearance of Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan in 1937.

The image shows Earhart's Lockheed Electra with a patch of aluminum bolted to the starboard side of the fuselage which was used to repair a window that was broken on landing in Miami prior to her heading across the Atlantic Ocean. The window had been installed into the airplane to allow Noonan to take celestial observations during the flight. The Miami Herald photo is the only one known to exist showing the patch.

In 1991, Earhart investigator Ric Gillespie of TIGHAR discovered a similar metal plate while searching for clues on Gardner Island. The U.K. newspaper The Mail reports that analysis of the metal showed it was of a similar type to that used on airplanes in the 1930s, but the rivet pattern on the plate found by Gillespie did not fit the standard Lockheed Electra rivet patterns, and the theory was dismissed.

Gillespie now believes that, if the riveting on the plate can be matched to the non-standard rivets from the repair seen in the photo, the mystery of where Earhart and Noonan eventually ended their days can be solved. Gillespie postulates that the pair survived a crash-landing on Gardner Island, also known as Nikumaroro, and likely perished there, succumbing to exposure, thirst, and disease.

(Image from file. Not Miami Herald image)

FMI: http://tighar.org