On Wednesday, a documentary by “History Channel” released a recently discovered photograph from the US National Archives. Examiners assert the photograph delineates Amelia Earhart, Fred Noonan, her navigator, along with their plane on the Marshall Islands after their sudden disappearance. According to the documentary, the photo was captured by the military of Japan.
The photo, discovered by former US Treasury Agent Les Kinney, professedly indicates Noonan and Earhart on Jaluit Atoll dock in the Marshall Islands.
However, other specialists said to CNN that they aren't persuaded and added that the photograph is simply one more addition to a long history of skeptical speculations.
Story behind her disappearance
Amelia Earhart vanished 80 years ago near the Pacific Ocean. Earhart was the first female pilot who flew over the Atlantic. In the year 1937, while venturing to travel over the Pacific Ocean and to Howland Island, she disappeared with her navigator Fred Noonan.
The most fundamental hypothesis, formally held by the US government and the Smithsonian, stipulates that they got short on fuel. Ultimately, the plane crashed into the Pacific Ocean close to Howland, leading to their deaths.
However, the search of investigators to know the actual reality behind the incident still leads to dubious results.
Photo Revelations
This aforementioned photograph, dated to 1937, shows a lady sitting on the dock, having a short hairstyle that looks similar to Earhart's.
A facial recognition expert told NBC, the pants she is wearing resembles that Earhart used to wear and her body portions complement those from different pictures of Earhart.
Ken Gibson, a facial recognition specialist, told NBC, standing close to people's group in the photo is a man who looks like Noonan and has the same retreating hairline and eminent nose.
Also, the documentary says that a blurred shape, behind the bow of the vast ship, gives off an impression of being Earhart's plane.
Disagreeing Experts
There are experts who don’t concur to the fact that the picture demonstrates anything conclusive.
Dorothy Cochrane, curator at the “Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum” for the Aeronautics Department, finds the photo interesting but not definitive.
She said that "People take pictures and elucidate them, and they're allowed to do that", however; she remains unconvinced.
“It is one of the best puzzles of the twentieth century as she was so notable,” she further added.
Richard Gillespie, a board member of TIGHAR (The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery) was also incredulous of the photograph, which he had noticed over a year back. Gillespie said he investigated the photograph and trusts that the woman sitting has excessive hair as compared to Earhart and that the claimed Noonan figure has a different hairline.
As per the theories of Gillespie and TIGHAR, the plane had a brutal landing on a remote island named Gardner in the southwestern Pacific and they died.
