Unsolved mysteries have a way of intriguing the public. For decades, Amelia Earhart and her fateful flight over the Pacific have left people wondering what happened to the adventurer. As time has passed, the mystery has only deepened with little breakthrough evidence as to what may have truly happened.
In 2009, The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (also known as TIGHAR) claimed that Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, likely ended up on Nikumaroro, an uninhabited island in the Pacific. On Friday, the group announced they had found further evidence on the island, backing up their original claim.
According to ABC News, a jar of 1930's face cream found on the island was strikingly similar to something Amelia Earhart would have used. Other clues found at the "castaway campsite" on the island suggest that someone had been stranded there at one time. All of the evidence gathered by TIGHAR strongly show that, at one time, a westerner was stranded on the island. With artifacts dating back to Earhart's time period discovered there, it seems almost certain that the small island is where she and Noonan ended up and eventually perished.
Of course, while the mystery seems to nearly be solved, without any strong conclusive evidence, it is likely that there will still be people holding onto one of the many conspiracy theories. While most people have always accepted that the plane simply ran out of fuel and was forced to make an emergency landing either on a small island or at sea, there are those who hold on to the belief that Earhart and Noonan were spies and had been captured and subsequently executed.
TIGHAR will be back on the small island next month in hopes of turning up more clues to finally solve this mystery.
What do you think happened to Amelia Earhart? Do you think solving the mystery will take away from the legend?
© Corrina Jean
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