CLOSE A viral photograph has surfaced that may prove Amelia Earhart was captured by the Japanese. Here are some crazy theories on what might have happened. USA TODAY

Photographic evidence of Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan in the Marshall Islands found in the National Archives. (Photo: Photograph courtesy of Les Kinney/U.S. National Archives)

A photograph discovered in the U.S. National Archives may add weight to the theory that Amelia Earhart survived a landing in the Marshall Islands and was taken captive by the Japanese.

The photo shows a picture of a woman who appears to be Amelia Earhart and a man that looks like her co-pilot, Fred Noonan, after their crash, according to a History Channel special dubbed Amelia Earhart: The Lost Evidence, which airs Sunday. The photo and other details that point to Earhart's capture by the Japanese are detailed in the two-hour special.

The show features former FBI executive assistant director Shawn Henry as he investigates evidence supporting the theory that Earhart crash-landed in the Marshall Islands and eventually died in Japanese custody on the island of Saipan.

The photo was likely taken by someone who was spying on the Japanese for the U.S., according to the special.

The show highlights additional evidence, including plane parts found on the Marshall Islands that appear to be like those on the plane Earhart flew in 1937, and an eyewitness who claims to have seen Earhart and Noonan after they supposedly perished.

Japanese authorities told NBC that there are no records indicating that Earhart was in Japanese custody.

The photo shows a woman with short hair, much like Earhart's cut, sitting on a dock with her back to the camera. A man, who looks like Noonan is standing a short distance behind her.

Kent Gibson, a facial recognition expert, who studied the photo, said in the History Channel special that it's "very convincing evidence" that the photo is of Noonan.

"The hairline is the most distinctive characteristic," Gibson said. "It's a very sharp receding hairline. The nose is very prominent."

The theory is far from the only speculation about what happened to Earhart after her disappearance on July 2, 1937.

The History Channel special airs on the heels of another high-profile investigation into Earhart's demise. A team of researchers is currently using bone-sniffing dogs in hopes of finding Earhart's remains on a remote Pacific island, where they believe she may have died as a castaway.

The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) hopes to find bones on the island of Nikumaroro, which could prove whether the castaway theory is correct once and for all. Even if DNA analysis proves their theory is correct, people will likely still hold on to whatever theory they believe about Earhart's disappearance, according to Ric Gillespie, executive director of TIGHAR, who wrote Finding Amelia: The True Story of the Earhart Disappearance.

"It's such an iconic mystery, and people hold on to that mystery," he said. "They love the mystery."

CLOSE A recently-discovered photograph is turning the mystery surrounding Amelia Earhart’s 1937 disappearance on its head, leading a handful of experts to believe the celebrated aviator and women’s rights role model actually survived her final flight. Time

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Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2uq5OHs</s>Story highlights A newly discovered photo appears to show Amelia Earhart after her crash landing, some experts say

But other experts remain unconvinced the photo proves anything

(CNN) A newly unearthed photo showing blurry figures on a dock may shed light on the 80-year-old mystery of what happened to Amelia Earhart.

A new History channel documentary quotes experts who say the image shows the famed pilot survived her 1937 crash in the Pacific. But other experts told CNN they aren't convinced and say the photo is just another in a long history of unproven theories about the aviator's disappearance.

"I don't blame people for wanting to know," said Dorothy Cochrane, curator for the Aeronautics Department at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. "It is one of the greatest mysteries of the 20th century because she was so well known."

A new History Channel special claims this photo is proof Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan were in the Marshall Islands after their plane disappeared.

Earhart, the pioneering aviator who became the first female pilot to fly solo across the Atlantic, famously disappeared with her navigator Fred Noonan on July 2, 1937, while attempting to fly to Howland Island in the Pacific Ocean. Her fate has been a figure of fascination, and professional and amateur investigators have offered many theories over the years on what happened to the daring pilot.

The photograph, recently discovered in the National Archives by former US Treasury Agent Les Kinney, allegedly shows Earhart and Noonan among a group of people on a dock on Jaluit Atoll in the Marshall Islands.

Some experts believe the figure highlighted at left is Fred Noonan and the person sitting, facing away from the camera, is Amelia Earhart.</s>Photographic evidence of Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan in Marshall Islands found in National Archives.</s>A lost photo may shed new light on the mysterious death of famous aviator Amelia Earhart.

The photo, which will be featured in a new History channel special called "Amelia Earhart: The Lost Evidence," was discovered in the National Archives more than 80 years after her death. In it, a woman who appears to be Earhart sits on a dock in the Marshall Islands near to a man who resembles her navigator Fred Noonan.

After becoming the first female pilot to fly a plane across the Atlantic Ocean, Earhart set off to circumnavigate the globe in July 1937. Her plane vanished without a trace during the flight and, by 1939, both Earhart and Noonan were declared dead.

But the new photo, which shows figures that appear like Earhart and Noonan, could challenge the common theory that the plane crashed somewhere in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

Shawn Henry, former executive assistant director for the FBI, told NBC News that he's confident the photo is legitimate and pictures Earhart sitting on the dock.

"When you pull out, and when you see the analysis that's been done, I think it leaves no doubt to the viewers that that's Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan," said Henry. Her plane appears to be on a barge in the background being towed by a large ship.

According to NBC News, the team that uncovered the photo believes that the photo demonstrates that Earhart and Noonan were blown off course. The latest photo could suggest that Earhart was captured by the Japanese military, experts told NBC News.

While current Japanese authorities told the news outlet that they had no record of Earhart ever being in their custody, American investigators insisted that the photo strongly suggests that Earhart survived the crash and was taken into captivity. The photo also pictures a Japanese ship towing what resembles Earhart's plane.

"We believe that the Koshu took her to Saipan [the Mariana Islands], and that she died there under the custody of the Japanese," said Gary Tarpinian, the executive producer behind the History project.</s>That question has captivated the public ever since her plane vanished over the Pacific Ocean in 1937 as she attempted to become the first female pilot to fly around the world.

Now, investigators believe they have discovered the “smoking gun” that would support a decades-old theory that Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, were captured by the Japanese: a newly unearthed photograph from the National Archives that purportedly shows Earhart and Noonan — and their plane — on an atoll in the Marshall Islands.

“I was originally skeptical until we could get the photograph authenticated,” Shawn Henry, a former FBI assistant executive director who is now helping privately investigate the Earhart disappearance, told The Washington Post. “The fact that it came out of the National Archives as opposed to somebody’s basement or garage somewhere — that to me gave it a lot more credibility.”

The photograph was rediscovered a few years ago in a mislabeled file at the National Archives by a former U.S. Treasury agent named Les Kinney, who began looking into Earhart’s disappearance after he retired, according to previews for a new History channel documentary, “Amelia Earhart: The Lost Evidence,” that airs July 9.

The 8-by-10-inch black-and-white photograph went ignored in a stack of 20 or 30 other pictures until Kinney took a closer look a few months later, Henry said.

In the photo, a figure with Earhart’s haircut and approximate body type sits on the dock, facing away from the camera, Henry points out. Toward the left of the dock is a man they believe is Noonan. On the far right of the photo is a barge with an airplane on it, supposedly Earhart’s.

Henry, who was asked to join the investigation about a year ago, said two photo experts analyzed the picture to ensure it had not been manipulated. It had not been, they found. The experts also compared the facial features and body proportions of the two figures in the photograph with known pictures of Earhart and Noonan.

For the man on the left, “the hairline is the most distinctive characteristic,” Ken Gibson, a facial recognition expert who studied the image, told the Today show. “It’s a very sharp receding hairline. The nose is very prominent… . It’s my feeling that this is very convincing evidence that this is probably Noonan.”

The figure seated on the dock is wearing pants, much like Earhart often did, Henry noted.

“I’m looking at her sitting on the dock and thinking, ‘This is her,’ ” he said.

Though they can’t be sure of when the photo was taken, there is no record of Earhart being in the Marshall Islands, he added.

Henry said he traveled to the Marshall Islands and interviewed the son of a man whose father repeatedly told others he had witnessed Earhart’s plane land at Mili Atoll in 1937. He also spoke with the last living person who claimed to have seen the pair after their emergency landing.

“But again, for me, those things are all somewhat suspect until you have that photograph, which corroborates that she was there,” Henry said. “To me, that’s just proof beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Gary Tarpinian, executive producer of the History documentary, told the “Today” show that they believe the Koshu, the Japanese merchant ship in the photo, took Earhart to Saipan, where she died in Japanese custody.

The team thinks the photo might have been taken by someone spying on the Japanese, he added. Other questions, like when and how Earhart died, remain a mystery.

“What happened to her then? Was there a coverup or not? Did the U.S. government know? What did the Japanese government know?” Henry said. “I think this actually opens up a whole new line of questioning.”

Over the past 80 years, three prevailing theories about Earhart’s disappearance have emerged.

Some speculate that Earhart’s Lockheed Model 10 Electra crashed and sank to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, killing her and Noonan.

Last year, a Pennsylvania-based group called International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) repositioned the spotlight on an alternate theory: With their fuel rapidly depleting, Earhart and Noonan used celestial navigation to land on a remote coral atoll named Gardner Island, about 400 miles south of Howland Island, their original destination. It was there, TIGHAR says, that the two tried to send out frantic radio calls for help but eventually died as castaways.

Just last month, the group launched an ambitious expedition to try to prove its theory, sending researchers and a pack of forensically trained border collies to Gardner Island, now called Nikumaroro. The mission: For the dogs to sniff out human bones that, through DNA matching, would confirm Earhart and Noonan landed and then perished on that island.

Henry said he isn’t bothered by other explanations for of Earhart’s disappearance.

“I’ve listened to some competing theories,” he said. “When you look at the totality of what we put together and then hold that photograph … I think that photograph is as close to a smoking gun as you’re going to have in a cold case that’s 80 years old.”</s>A newly discovered photograph suggests that American aviator Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan may have survived the crash landing of their final flight more than 80 years ago.

The never-before-seen photo, provided by the National Archives, is presumed to show Earhart and Noonan after they crash-landed in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean. The photo came from a top secret Navy file, according to a new History channel special "Amelia Earhart: The Lost Evidence."

In the special, which airs Sunday, former FBI Executive Assistant Director Shawn Henry investigates new evidence behind Earhart's disappearance.

Earhart and Noonan were believed to have crashed and sunk in the South Pacific on July 2, 1937, as Earhart attempted to become the first pilot to circumvent the globe. She was the first female to fly across the Atlantic Ocean.

In June 2015, newly rediscovered footage believed to be shot in the spring of 1937 showed the last known recording of Earhart before she departed for her final flight.

But the newly unearthed photo suggests that a previous theory discussed decades ago, based on accounts of locals who claimed to have seen her, that Earhart and Noonan crashed in the Marshall Islands and survived could be accurate.</s>(CNN) A newly unearthed photo showing blurry figures on a dock may shed light on the 80-year-old mystery of what happened to Amelia Earhart.

A new History channel documentary quotes experts who say the image shows the famed pilot survived her 1937 crash in the Pacific. But other experts told CNN they aren't convinced and say the photo is just another in a long history of unproven theories about the aviator's disappearance.

"I don't blame people for wanting to know," said Dorothy Cochrane, curator for the Aeronautics Department at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. "It is one of the greatest mysteries of the 20th century because she was so well known."

Earhart, the pioneering aviator who became the first female pilot to fly solo across the Atlantic, famously disappeared with her navigator Fred Noonan on July 2, 1937, while attempting to fly to Howland Island in the Pacific Ocean. Her fate has been a figure of fascination, and professional and amateur investigators have offered many theories over the years on what happened to the daring pilot.

The photograph, recently discovered in the National Archives by former US Treasury Agent Les Kinney, allegedly shows Earhart and Noonan among a group of people on a dock on Jaluit Atoll in the Marshall Islands.

Some experts believe the man at the far left is Fred Noonan and the person sitting, facing away from camera, is Amelia Earhart.

The expert came to this conclusion by comparing Noonan's nose, teeth and hairline to the man in the image. He then used Earhart's torso measurements to compare her with the other figure.

The documentary also says that a blurry form in the background, on the far right beyond the bow of the large ship, appears to be Earhart's plane.

The photo could support the documentary's theory that Earhart and Noonan crashed in the Marshall Islands and were captured by the Japanese military. This means the duo could have died in Japanese custody on the island of Saipan rather than in a crash landing, according to the History channel.

But other experts aren't convinced the image proves much of anything.

The Smithsonian's position, according to Cochrane, follows the commonly held belief that Earhart and Noonan had communications problems and couldn't find Howland Island. They then ran out of fuel and crashed into the Pacific Ocean somewhere near there, she said.

Anything further than that is largely unproven theorizing, she said.

"It's not the exciting theory. It's not the attention grabber," she said. "I would prefer to think that she had more of a quick exit via a crash in the ocean rather than capture by the Japanese ... but that's neither here nor there. (That's just) wishing her a speedy end rather than a nasty one."

Cochrane said she has seen the new photo from the History documentary and called it "interesting" but "not definitive."

"People take photos and interpret them, and they're free to do that," she said. "It has not persuaded me."

Richard Gillespie, a board member of The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR), was similarly skeptical of the documentary's photo, which he became aware of more than a year ago.

"I don't believe there is legitimacy to this," he told CNN.

Gillespie said he looked into the photo and believes the person sitting down has too much hair to be Earhart and that the alleged Noonan figure has the wrong hairline.

"We believe she died as a castaway," he said. "All evidence points to that. We have a photo that forensic analysts have looked at -- a photo taken three months after Earhart's disappearance -- and we can't say for sure but it appears to be her landing gear ... that matches the records of the flight."

In any case, Earhart's disappearance remains an intriguing mystery that appears to have no firm conclusion in sight.

"The world was following her," Cochrane said. "So it is really someone (who) drops off the face of the Earth. Naturally everyone wants to know what happens."</s>
• A two-part documentary airing on HISTORY alleges that Amelia Earhart was captured by the Japanese military after she crash-landed her plane.
• The special points to a newly discovered photograph that apparently shows her and her navigator in the Marshall Islands.

The 1937 disappearance of Amelia Earhart, the famous aviator who broke records and gender barriers, has been one of the most notorious unsolved mysteries in American history. And now, a new documentary claims to have the answer to her troubling fate.

This weekend, HISTORY will air a special that claims Earhart survived a crash-landing in the Marshall Islands, was captured by the Japanese military, and died in their custody on Saipan. The special revolves around Shawn Henry, a former FBI executive assistant director, who investigates U.S. government archives to uncover long-lost information about Earhart's disappearance.

According to the two-part documentary, the newly discovered photo below shows Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, in the Marshall Islands. The photo had apparently been mislabeled and hidden within the U.S. National Archives. But look closely and you'll see two blurry people, with Earhart's back allegedly to the camera:

Henry and his team investigate the photo, along with other evidence like plane parts and eyewitness interviews, to make their claim about what happened to Earhart and Noonan. According to People, this explanation has long been a conspiracy theory about Earhart's disappearance, but Henry says the photograph makes it more of a real possibility than ever before. He argues that the Japanese may have thought the aviators were spies, and since American searchers weren't allowed into the Marshall Islands, they never found a trace of the plane.</s>WASHINGTON — A recently discovered photograph suggests aviator Amelia Earhart might have survived a crash landing during her around-the-world flight 80 years ago, and then was captured by the Japanese.

According to the History Channel, a photo was found buried in the National Archives. The channel says it could hold the key to solving one of history’s all-time greatest mysteries.

The photo was supposedly taken days after the then-39-year-old Earhart crashed into the South Pacific atoll, People reports.

The picture shows two blurry images on a dock that is believed to be Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan. A ship can be seen towing a barge with an airplane on the back.

Earhart and Noonan were last seen on July 2, 1937, as she tried to become the first woman to circumnavigate the globe.

Most experts believe Earhart likely ran out of fuel and crashed, but no trace of her, Noonan and the plane has ever been found.

“Gas is running low. Have been unable to reach you by radio. We’re flying at 1,000 feet,” was Earhart’s last transmission to a Coast Guard cutter.

The History Channel reports the evidence suggests Earhart might have crashed in the Marshall Islands, then was captured by the Japanese military and died while being held prisoner.

Facial recognition expert Kent Gibson said the people on the dock appear to be Earhart and Noonan, and believes it is “likely” the lost aviators.

“This absolutely changes history,” said Shawn Henry, a former executive assistant director of the FBI who worked with the History Channel on the upcoming documentary on Earhart.

“I think we proved beyond a reasonable doubt that she survived her flight and was held prisoner by the Japanese on the island of Saipan, where she eventually died.”

The documentary, “Amelia Earhart: The Lost Evidence,” airs Sunday night on the History Channel.</s>The disappearance of Amelia Earhart is one of the great unsolved mysteries, although a recently-discovered photo is being touted as a vital clue to the aviation pioneer’s fate.

Earhart, who was attempting to fly around the world, disappeared on July 2, 1937 during a flight from Papua New Guinea to Howland Island in the Pacific. Researchers claim that new evidence from U.S. Government archives may finally solve the mystery of what happened to the record-breaking pilot.

A two-hour documentary “Amelia Earhart: The Lost Evidence” will reveal the documents when it airs on the History channel July 9. Investigators will present the theory that Earhart survived her final flight after crash-landing in the Marshall Islands. The aviator, they say, was then captured by the Japanese military and died in their custody on the island of Saipan. The investigators also claim that the U.S. government may have covered up Earhart’s fate, citing the possibility that she was on a spying mission.

NEW SEARCH WILL LOOK FOR AMELIA EARHART’S BONES

The Japanese government has not yet responded to a request for comment on this story from Fox News.

A photograph, which purportedly shows Earhart, her navigator Fred Noonan and their ill-fated plane after the crash, is presented as a critical piece of evidence in the documentary. The photo was found within the U.S. National Archives by Les Kinney, a former U.S. Treasury Agent. “The photograph came out of a Navy file, a formerly top secret file in the National Archives,” says Kinney, during the documentary. “It was misfiled and that was the only reason I found it.”

The photo of a group of people on a Marshall Islands dock shows Earhart sitting with her back to the camera, according to Kinney. “Look at the body, the build, the short hair, the fact that she’s Caucasian,” he explained, adding that the tall man on the left of the group is Noonan.

Earhart’s plane is said to be on a barge in the far right of the picture, which was tested with recognition and proportional comparison technology.

The documentary also focuses on plane parts found on Mili Atoll in the Marshall Islands that are said to be consistent with the aircraft Earhart was flying in 1937.

However, Dorothy Cochrane, curator in the Aeronautics department of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum told Fox News there is no evidence that Earhart was sent out on a spying mission. Cochrane, who has not yet seen the new documentary says that unravelling the Earhart mystery remains incredibly difficult. “There’s no definite evidence that anyone has got as to where she ended up,” she said.

The first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, Earhart was one of the most famous people at the time of her disappearance. A number of theories have emerged about her fate.

One theory is that Earhart died a castaway after landing her plane on the remote island of Nikumaroro, a coral atoll some 1,200 miles from the Marshall Islands. Some 13 human bones were found on Nikumaroro, which is also known as Gardner Island, three years after Earhart’s disappearance. The bones, however, were subsequently lost. A new search for other bones on the island was recently launched.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.
The aviator Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan may have survived in the Marshall Islands and were held captive by the Japanese according to an allegedly undoctored photo in the National Archives. Experts remain divided on the claim, however.