Metal patch may point to Earhart's plane

Researchers say they are increasingly confident that a piece of aluminum found on a remote Pacific atoll more than 20 years ago probably came from the airplane flown by Amelia Earhart on her ill-fated attempt to circle the world in 1937.

The metal sheet, found in 1991 with other possible Earhart artifacts on Nikumaroro, in Kiribati, appears to be the patch that replaced a navigational window on her Lockheed Electra during an eight-day layover in Miami, her fourth stop, the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery announced.

The finding bolsters the group's speculation that an "anomaly" detected by sonar 600 feet deep off the coral atoll's west end in 2012 may be the remains of the fuselage.

Another expedition is planned for June to examine the steep, underwater mountainside and search the island for evidence of the campsite that Earhart and Noonan built as castaways. Their remains have never been found.

The working hypothesis is that Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, landed safely July 2 on what was then called Gardner Island. Radio evidence indicates they sent distress calls for at least five nights before tides and surf washed the twin-propeller plane off the reef.

The researchers say the shiny metal patch, which replaced the custom-made window, is visible in a June 1, 1937, newspaper photo of Earhart's plane leaving Miami for Puerto Rico.

"The patch was as unique to her particular aircraft as a fingerprint is to an individual," the group says.

An examination of the Pacific artifact by vintage-aircraft restorers determined that the rivet pattern and dimensions "matches that fingerprint in many respects."