A newly discovered photograph suggests legendary US pilot Amelia Earhart may have died in Japanese custody, rather than in a plane crash in the Pacific Ocean. If proven true, the claim would solve one of aviation history's greatest mysteries.
Earhart vanished during a 1937 flight over the Pacific, and her disappearance has sparked decades of speculation. The black-and-white photo, found in the US National Archives, shows a group on a dock at Jaluit Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Proponents argue a seated figure with her back to the camera is Earhart, and a man on the far left is her navigator, Fred Noonan. A blurry section on the right is said to be her plane.
However, prominent expert Ric Gillespie, author of Finding Amelia, dismissed the claim. He told the BBC: "This photograph has people convinced. I'm astounded by this. ... It's undated. They think it's from 1937. If it's from July 1, 1937 then it can't be Amelia, because she hadn't taken off yet." He noted the photo came from an Office of Naval Intelligence file and likely showed a Japanese naval asset, not Earhart. "Where are the Japanese? There are no soldiers in this picture," he added.
The History channel released the photo ahead of a documentary. Two experts in the programme support the claim by analysing torso measurements and facial features, but Gillespie argues the woman's hair is too long and the man's shirt is the wrong colour. "Everything about this is wrong," he concluded.
The official explanation for Earhart's disappearance is that she ran out of fuel and crashed into the ocean. Other theories suggest she crash-landed on the Marshall Islands or died as a castaway on Nikumaroro island, but no conclusive evidence exists for either.
