Grainy image may show Earhart's plane wreckage: researchers

A grainy sonar image taken hundreds of feet below the Pacific Ocean's surface may help unravel the mystery behind the death of Amelia Earhart, an American aviation pioneer, who disappearance has baffled historians for decades.
What happened to aviator 39-year-old Earhart, and where is her plane?
No one has been able to answer that question since June 2, 1937, when Earhart, navigator Fred Noonan and their Lockheed Electra plane disappeared during a doomed attempt at an around-the-world flight.
But new information provided by a team of researchers this week indicates they may have found a new clue, CNN reported.
The sonar image was recorded by search teams scanning the ocean floor nearly a year ago near Nikumaroro Island, in the South Pacific.

"It's the right size, it's the right shape, and it's in the right place," The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery said on its website.

But it wasn't until March that one analyst made the connection in an online forum for the group.
The organisation says experts have offered different interpretations. Some think it could be a man-made object, and others say it could be a geologic feature.
"So did (last summer's) expedition actually succeed in locating the wreckage of the world's most famous missing airplane? Or is this sonar target just a coral rock or ridge?" the organisation said on its website.

"Of course we're not going to know until we can get back out there, but until then the anomaly is worth close study.