NIKUMARORO – A group dedicated to learning the fate of missing aviator Amelia Earhart says tests show with a high degree of certainty that a piece of aircraft debris found in the Gilbert Islands, now part of the Central Pacific island nation of Kiribati was from her Lockheed Electra. The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, also called TIGHAR, said the metal plate was most likely a patch put on her plane at Miami at the beginning of her epic attempt to fly around the world in 1937. However, one skeptic says it’s more likely the metal came from one of the Catalina flying boats patrolling the area during World War II, a claim that TIGHAR dismisses. Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan vanished over the Central Pacific as they tried to find their next stop at Howland Island, starting a decades-long mystery. TIGHAR said they crashed on desolate Gardner Island, now called Nikumaroro, about 350 miles southeast of Howland Island, and died of starvation. The group plans another expedition to Nikumaroro next summer to investigate a sonar contact 600 feet below the ocean surface.
Tuesday, Nov. 25, 10 a.m.
