Old pics could prove Amelia Earhart lived as castaway

An array of detailed aerial image of Gardner Island - now known as Nikumaroro - has raised hopes of proving that Amelia Earhart may have lived there as a castaway.

The images were in an unlabeled tin box in New Zealand Air Force Museum in Christchurch's archives before they were found by Matthew O'Sullivan, Discovery News reported.

The box had five sheets of contact prints - for a total of 45 photos with negatives - and a slip of paper that had "Gardner Island" written on it.

The legendary aviator went missing over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to fly around the world at the equator on July 2, 1937.

Researchers of The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) believe that Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, may have made a forced landing on Nikumaroro's smooth, flat coral reef becoming castaways and eventually dying on the atoll, some 350 miles southeast of Howland Island.

Ric Gillespie, executive director of TIGHAR told Discovery News that for 25 years they struggled to bring out details from a handful of printed images, however, he said that they now have at their disposal an array of detailed aerial images of every part of the atoll.

The aerial photographs, which were taken just 15 months after disappearance of Earhart and just before the first official habitation of the island in late December 1938, were clicked by a Walrus launched from HMS Leander in support of the New Zealand Pacific Aviation Survey on December 1, 1938.

TIGHAR has released sonar photos captured off Nikumaroro that show a straight, unbroken feature, which is uncannily consistent with the fuselage of a Lockheed Electra that Earhart was flying.

Gillespie also said that the images could provide evidence of the presence of the castaway whose partial skeleton was found in 1940, which was recovered by British Colonial Service Officer Gerald Gallagher.