(MENAFN- Arab News) WASHINGTON: The quest to solve one of aviation's most enduring mysteries the disappearance of Amelia Earhart resumes on a South Pacific atoll next week with a cruise ship looking on for the first time.
The 11th TIGHAR expedition will be searching for more clues to back up the theory that the celebrated American aviatrix crash-landed on Nikumaroro when she vanished in 1937 during a round-the-world flight.
'The object is to see if we can add to the preponderance of evidence that we have assembled in the course of 27 years and 10 expeditions to the island' said Ric Gillespie executive director of TIGHAR the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery.
'If we make a dramatic discovery that would be great but I'm not going to predict that that is what we are going to do' Gillespie told AFP in a telephone interview Monday.
In one of aviation's enduring riddles Earhart 39 and navigator Fred Noonan 44 vanished as they were flying from Papua New Guinea to Howland Island on July 2 1937.
For years it was assumed that they ditched their Lockheed Electra into the sea after running out of fuel never to be seen again. Some believed they were taken captive by Imperial Japanese forces.
But over the years TIGHAR has explored the likelihood that the duo survived a crash-landing on a flat reef off Nikumaroro and went ashore to await rescue only to witness their Electra being swept into the sea.
Nikumaroro lies 360 miles (560 kilometers) south-southeast of Howland Island a US possession half-way between Hawaii and Australia.