Museum releases photos of island where Earhart may have crashed

Summarised from 2 outlets · Updated 17 Oct, 11:57 · Archive

The Air Force Museum of New Zealand has released 47 aerial photographs from a 1938 survey of Nikumaroro Island, a remote atoll in the South Pacific located roughly halfway between Australia and Hawaii. The black-and-white images were taken on 1 December 1938 during a New Zealand survey of Pacific islands searching for suitable airbase locations.

Airhart, 39, disappeared on 2 July 1937 during an attempt to circumnavigate the globe at the equator. A leading theory holds that she and her navigator Fred Noonan ran out of fuel and were marooned on Nikumaroro, then known as Gardner Island. Earhart had broken several aviation records, including becoming the first woman to fly a nonstop solo trip across the Atlantic.

The negatives were discovered more than a decade ago by Matthew O'Sullivan, the keeper of photographs at the Christchurch museum. While some low-resolution copies have appeared online, this is the first full release of the collection in high-resolution format. Ric Gillespie, Earhart's most prominent investigator, described the images as a 'goldmine'. The release coincides with a renewed search effort by a research team from Purdue University, Earhart's former benefactor, exploring a visual anomaly in the island's lagoon.

How it is being reported

• New island photo dump may finally prove what happened to Amelia Earhart: Snaps offer new clues over pioneering aviator's disappearanceA cache of aerial images showing Nikumaroro Island in the South Pacific could offer fresh clues in solving the disappearance of pioneering aviator Amelia Earhart.Daily Mail · 17 Oct, 11:40
• Museum releases historical photos of island where Amelia Earhart may have crashedImages from New Zealand aerial survey of Nikumaroro in 1938 offer new clues over aviator’s disappearance A New Zealand museum has released nearly 50 photos from a 1938 aerial survey of the island where Amelia Earhart is believed to have crash-landed, offering amateur sleuths new evidence to scour for traces of the pioneering aviator and her plane. The black-and-white images were published by the Air Force Museum of New Zealand after renewed interest in one of the biggest mysteries of the 20th century, spurred by a US expedition to the Pacific atoll of Nikumaroro in search of new clues.…Guardian World · 16 Oct, 11:09

In this story: Amelia Earhart · Fred Noonan · Nikumaroro Island · Air Force Museum of New Zealand · Ric Gillespie · Purdue University

This summary was written by AI from the headlines and standfirsts above, and states as fact only what at least two outlets report. How we use AI · Report a problem