New Photo Suggests US Pilot Amelia Earhart May Have Been Captured By Japanese

In 1937, legendary US pilot, Amelia Earhart, disappeared in a flight over the Pacific. Since then her story has intrigued many, and many have speculated over what happened.

Now, a newly discovered photo shows a figure, that some insist is her, on the then Japanese Marshall Islands. Some believe that the picture shows the pilot in Japanese custody. The photo will be presented in a two-hour documentary for the History Channel, ‘Amelia Earhart: The Lost Evidence’. The photo was discovered by Les Kinney, a retired US Treasury agent who’s spent a lot of time searching for clues in the case.

Experts believe that the photo was taken by a spy. However, Japan’s Foreign Ministry and National Archives say that they have no records of Earhart ever being in their custody.

The most agreed upon theory for Earhart’s disappearance is that she ran out of gas and crashed into the ocean.

Kinney said that he found the photo because it had been misfiled in a place unrelated to anything to do with Earhart. He says that the presence of two Caucasians on Japan’s Jaluit Atoll was unusual and that the figures represent Earhart and her co pilot Noonan.

Ken Gibson, a facial recognition specialist, said that the photo is ‘very likely’ a picture of the two.

The photo also shows the Japanese ship Koshu towing an object 38 feet long — the same length as Earhart’s plane. Has this mystery been solved? History is always full of interesting surprises!

Earhart was an avid feminist and quite a dynamic woman. She was the first female pilot to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She set up an organisation for female pilots called The Ninety Nines. She was a career counsellor to women students of aeronautical engineering at Purdue University, and was a supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment. She was also an author.

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Photo Credit:  NBC News