Evidence Earhart was on Saipan in 1937

In light of the recent competing headlines, I'm putting together a timeline of events for those who need to understand what actually happened to Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan.

1. As the History Channel show reported, Earhart's Electra encountered a storm near Howland that pushed the Electra off course and NW of Howland.  (As noted on this blog, I was invited to participate in the show, was part of the sizzle reel used to sell the show to History Channel.  But because I have my own projects, I deferred from participating. However, the show was accurate as to the research I've seen. The photograph and the evidence of why and how she turned to the Gilberts was new to me.) When Amelia turned to "fly to the Gilberts" as the show reported - the first island she came upon was not in the Gilberts - it was Endriken Isle in Mili.

Endriken Island - at high tide. Low tide you could "land a 747" according
to one researcher who's been there.

How do we know this for a fact?

First of all, a number of people saw her plane land.  The Queen of Mili Atoll was interviewed in Oliver Knagg's book "Amelia Earhart: Her Last Flight." I interviewed the cameraman who filmed that footage of his trip to the Marshalls. He confirmed the details that are in his book (and that the footage is in legal limbo but exists)

Pretty soon, it's going to be swamped. Google Earth

Oliver Knaggs on Saipan 1983
Looking at a cell before the metal bars removed.

On a recent trip to the Marshalls, Mike Harris, Les Kinney and Dick Spink all heard from islanders that claimed the Japanese had asked them to take her plane off of Mili atoll. 

Dick Spink spoke directly to islanders whose parents were fishing at the same fishing hole that exists to this day.  They brought a Japanese barge into the harbor, dragged the plane across the island, and put it aboard the Japanese barge.

Dick Spink found a number of pieces of the plane from his six trips to search the island.  He found a red painted piece of a cap, he found a piece of metal that could only fit her plane, and on their recent excursion, Les Kinney found a piece of rolled aluminum that could have come from her plane.  

I interviewed a retired NTSB official who showed me how the piece from her plane fit the exact same wheel - and in his professional opinion "the plane part could only come from her Electra."  That's not any opinion. That's a professional opinion of an NTSB investigator Jim Hayton who has testified before Congress.

Dick Spink, former NTSB investigator Jim Hayton, myself
and Mike Harris at Dick Spink's table, looking over the plane parts
and his extensive research. Photo copyright Dick Spink

So the History Channel episode only showed 1 piece from her plane. According to the NTSB expert I interviewed on camera, there is at least one other part for certain, and a smaller piece that could have come from her plane - in his professional opinion. 

The fact that no other plane parts from any other plane have been found in or near the island is also key.

NTSB Investigator Jim Hayton showing how this dust shield fit on the identical wheel rim,
unique to only this version of the Electra. It fit perfectly.
Photo Copyright Richard Martini 2014

The dust shield from the 1937 Electra manual. It describes the exact same
piece that Spink found. Copyright Richard Martini

Piece of a plane with red trim found on Mili atoll.
Comparing it to an actual piece of AE's Electra. Copyright Richard Martini.

Note the color red above - Not the same color to the eye
but analysis was inconclusive that it was the same paint.
Could have been.  But not definitively. Copyright Richard Martini.

So we know that a silver plane came down in Mili in July 1937. We know (as reported) that two caucasians survived, we know that one of them was a woman. The plane left behind a trail of it's being dragged across the island.  According to locals, it was put aboard a Japanese barge and taken away.

2.  The plane was first taken to Majuro, where a stevedore claims he first brought the Electra.  It was then taken, along with Amelia and Fred to Jaluit. (And from there she and Fred and the plane were taken to Saipan.)

Navy Vet Andrew Bryce, from Denver,
said he worked with a stevedore on Majuro who claimed he
moved the plane from Mili to a Japanese barge to Majuro. Photo Copyright Richard Martini

How do we know this for a fact?

Footage Copyright Mike Harris

Oscar de Brum, former Congressman from the Marshalls, who has testified before Congress, tells us in the clip at the end of this post, that he was there when his father took him to the dock and showed him the plane on back of the ship.  He remembers the moment clearly.  (Footage shot by Mike Harris in the Marshalls in 1980.)

Copyright Mike Harris

Bilimon Amaron was taken aboard the ship and tended to her and Fred's wounds.  His testimony was repeated in other places, both on camera and in print.  His reputation is beyond reproach - as his business partner of 40 years claims in his clip below.

Jaluit docks in the office of Naval Intelligence file.
Photograph demonstrates illegal fortification of the harbor
by the Japanese govt. contrary to their league of nations treaty.
They left the league in 1935, the dock was built in 1936

The photograph from the History channel shows a number of people on a dock in 1937. Photographic experts claim that the photo of Fred is a match.  

The naked eye, looking at the back of the woman crouching on the deck - looks like Amelia's shoulders and back. Having access to over 5000 photographs of her, and 30 hours of archival footage, I can say that I instantly spotted it when I saw the photograph. 

Copyright Mike Harris.

The photo also shows what Oscar de Brum and Bilimon Amaron claim they saw - the Electra on the back of the ship.  (In Bilimon's case, by the time he was visiting her aboard the ship, it was already in a sling at the back of the ship according to his testimony below.)

Copyright Mike Harris

As noted on this blog, two other eyewitnesses spoke about the fortifications of the harbor in 1937 and how they were arresting people for seeing them.  As mentioned early, two British subjects were executed for spying in the Marshalls in 1936, and De Bisschop's account refers to a British and American who appear to have "disappeared" for spying.

So a number of people claim to have seen Amelia and Fred and the Electra at Jaluit docks in 1937.  The photograph appears to corroborate their testimony - but it doesn't need to.  (Unless you inherently don't believe what islanders have to say.)

3. At least two people on camera claim they saw her, or their parent saw her come ashore on Saipan.  Josephine Blanco Akiyama, and a former Congressman from Saipan tell the same story - one who lives on Saipan, one who has lived near SF for 40 years - that of the two prisoners being led ashore and everyone told to "lower their eyes."  Clearly Josephone and the Congressman's father did not,and repeated their stories. (see the clip below where his father describes the same story that Josephine reports)

Ray's mom treated her in the hospital. Copyright Richard Martini

Many Saipanese saw her in Garapan - one woman's mother cleaned her clothes, Ray Guiterrez's mother tended to her in the hospital (which is now the war museum on Saipan) others saw her in her prison cell.  Ultimately they claim that she died in prison - Fred Goerner's witnesses in 1963 say she died of dysentery.

This man and his brother saw her on the back of a truck
in Garapan in 1937 when he was 12. "First caucasian woman I've ever seen,
dressed like a man, in Japanese custody.  It's not something you forget."
Another Saipanese businessman confirmed this story, as he saw
her on the same day further down the road. Copyright Richard Martini

She was buried and her body was dug up by two GI's.  Those GIs have been interviewed by a number of people, but in the Chicago Tribune in 1977, (UPI, January) they claimed they only partially recovered her body ("an arm and a partial ribcage").  

Her briefcase. Same case described by
two GIs who did not know each other.
This is her packing it for the last flight.

Her briefcase was found in a safe in Garapan by US Marine Robert Wallack. Inside her briefcase was her passport, maps and other papers "dry as a bone." 

Robert told me on camera that he was surprised, and kept the briefcase for two weeks before turning it over to the 82nd's Louis Wallace.  Wallace's assistant, Earskin Nabors cataloged the briefcase, and described it to me in an interview - the same case.

Both men described the briefcase to me - both had never seen a photograph of it. Their independent versions described the EXACT SAME BRIEFCASE.

Josephine saw her come up the docks in 1937. Photo copyright Richard Martini

Here's Josephine in 1937 with the Doctor with
whom she shared her story. It was he who directed
authorities to interview Josephine at the time. From her own book. Copyright Josephine Blanco

EJ Nabers, Copyright Richard Martini

Nabers decoded a message on June 19, 1944 that "Amelia Earhart's airplane has been found at Aslito airfield."  

He decoded the message in triplicate which Wallace had to sign.  (Nabers said he was "surprised" by his commanding officers lack of reaction.)  

Wallace ordered Nabers to "guard the plane" which he did for 24 hours. While guarding the plane, some "navy brass" came to see the plane and loudly declared "we know you have Earhart's airplane in there, we want to see it."  

Nabers refused their entry, to the point of drawing his service weapon.
"Orders is orders" he told me he said.

My friend Bob, who found her briefcase and held onto it for 2 weeks.
He turned it over to Nabor's CO. Copyright Richard Martini

Tom Devine, a US army vet in the postal service witnessed that conversation.  He said it to me on camera before I interviewed Nabers - and did not know who Nabers was.  

It was Devine's claim that he saw the Electra on Saipan
that prompted a state dept meeting in Tokyo with the Captain of
the Koshu and others, including General MacArthur
who promised to "get to the bottom of this."  He did not. 
Copyright Richard Martini

Nabers went on to say that he turned the briefcase over to a Navy man from ONI (whom I have been able to identify) and later, decoded a message they were going to fly the Electra.

Her initial cell, yards from where Fred Noonan
was reportedly kept. Copyright Richard Martini

Exterior of the cell Copyright Richard Martini

According to numerous eyewitnesses (in Tom Devine's books) a number of GIs saw the plane "fly around the field" on the south end of the island.  

Aslito had a number of intact hangars when it was liberated
on June 19, 1944

At about this time, Douglas Bryce, a radio repair man saw the plane in its hangar on Aslito.  He was told "Did you know they found Earhart's airplane?" and he and fellow soldiers drove down from Mt. Tapachou to see it. That testimony is in the footage below.  

Doug Bryce described the hangar to me in detail, and I was able to locate it precisely on the airfield, which matches photographs from the era.  It was one of the few hangars left intact.  Other people have said they saw the plane in the same hangar (including Nabers, who guarded it for 24 hours.)

Some of the wreckage on Alisito - but the Electra
was not only intact, but flyable.

Finally, Nabers reports that he decoded a message that said they were going to destroy the plane.  He and other soldiers went out to watch this occur - I've stood in the spot where they witnesses the burning of her plane. He gave me the names of the other fellows who went with them. He said at some point he realized "they shouldn't be there" but stayed to watch as the Electra was destroyed. 

A number of veterans saw the plane "on fire," reported that detail in Tom Devine's books - but Tom himself claims that he heard the explosion, and went down to the field - and the same plane he had seen close up only days before had been set afire. (see his clip in the footage below)

As Doug Bryce said in his interview "We all knew what
her plane looked like. It was the most famous plane
on the planet and had disappeared 7 years earlier."

Eyewitnesses seeing the same event - who had never met, yet repeated their stories to me on camera 70 years later.

Here they are discussing it on my camera:

And finally, the original press release prepared by the Foreign Office of the Marshall Islands.  I understand that they took the time to amend it - I guess so as not to not offend people - but the amended version does nothing to argue any facts differently than original one. I'm a journalist as well as a filmmaker.  And the amended press release does not refute the original press release, or amend it in any way.  I suggest allowing the truth to set one free is always allowable in all cases.  But I have posted both, to be fair, to show how they amended the original.  

That still doesn't mean the photograph is incorrect, or that it does not depict Fred Noonan, Amelia Earhart and the Electra on the back of a barge in 1937.  All it's doing is giving confirmation of the above eyewitness stories.  

Not conflicting. Not contrary. Some are by Caucasians for those who can only hear what Caucasians say - and some are from native islanders - for those who actually want to hear what they said or saw without the filter of a Caucasian point of view.

As noted earlier - an investigator has further documents that he's going to publish when he finishes his book.  Being meticulous,  he says he does not want to release his evidence without proof where his documents came from and how they got there.  I cannot reveal what's in them, only report I've been told that they confirm that everything in the above reports is accurate. -- That she came down in Mili, that the US intercepted and decoded that fact, but that they could not reveal they knew she had been arrested by the Japanese because it would prove they had broken their codes. And like Churchill and the Enigma machine revelations - "lives were sacrificed" for that intelligence. 

In this case, the lives of Fred Noonan and Amelia Earhart.

Again, I don't know why these stories make people upset nor am I interested in arguing about it.  These are simply eyewitness reports of what people saw. They are consistent. They can be corroborated. 

There are no other islanders on any other island who've told any other story like them. If they were being made up - wouldn't someone have come up with some alternate story? 

These people's stories have been told without any promise of money, fame or other motivation. They just wanted to speak the truth about something they witnessed, or their family member told them. In the case of one interviewee, he said "I don't care what happens to me for telling this story, but I wanted to speak the truth."  Obviously this Saipan local had been threatened in the past or feared for what he said about Earhart. Why or by whom, I don't know.  I was startled to hear him say it on camera.

Some were ridiculed for years by others who are/were convinced their version is correct. But none of those dissenting people - the debunkers - have ever met or interviewed a single eyewitness to corroborate their claims or denials. That's telling in and of itself.  

Finally - I'm not interested in arguing about why these people took the time to speak to me on camera about something they witnesses, saw or heard - because it's clear to me why they've done so and should be to anyone with open eyes.

Here are excerpts of the above interviews:

Boom! Les Kinney produces solid evidence of Earhart in captivity

Life long Earhart researcher, former Federal investigator Les Kinney, has shared some of his research with History Channel.  A photograph of Amelia Earhart in custody.

Les has been working on this case for a long time. A dogged investigator he's turned up a number of items that will be revealed in the History Channel show. But finally, after all these years, some solid photographic evidence of Amelia in custody.

Mike Harris was in the Marshall's in the 1980's when he began filming locals who claimed to have seen Earhart.  Mike and I went to Saipan to interview 15 new eyewitnesses, and I've gathered 6 US veterans who claim to have found her plane on Aslito airfield in Saipan.  Three are US Marines, one guarded her plane, one found her briefcase, one decoded the messages when the US military found her plane.

Finally, at long last some photographic evidence of Amelia in custody.   There's more out there, it's just a matter of determination to find it. Les has more documents that prove what happened to her, Dick Spink found pieces of the Electra on Mili Atoll where she brought the plane in for a landing.

More to come, but I wanted to share this amazing photo, and the NBC expert who has verified it.

From NBC: 

"A newly discovered photograph suggests legendary aviator Amelia Earhart, who vanished 80 years ago on a round-the-world flight, survived a crash-landing in the Marshall Islands.

The photo, found in a long-forgotten file in the National Archives, shows a woman who resembles Earhart and a man who appears to be her navigator, Fred Noonan, on a dock. The discovery is featured in a new History channel special, "Amelia Earhart: The Lost Evidence," that airs Sunday.

Independent analysts told History the photo appears legitimate and undoctored. Shawn Henry, former executive assistant director for the FBI and an NBC News analyst, has studied the photo and feels confident it shows the famed pilot and her navigator.

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"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," Henry told NBC News.

Earhart was last heard from on July 2, 1937, as she attempted to become the first woman pilot to circumnavigate the globe. She was declared dead two years later after the U.S. concluded she had crashed somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, and her remains were never found.

Amelia Earhart sits in her Electra plane cabin at the airport in Burbank, California, on May 20, 1937. Albert Bresnik / Paragon Agency via AP

But investigators believe they have found evidence Earhart and Noonan were blown off course but survived the ordeal. The investigative team behind the History special believes the photo may have been taken by someone who was spying for the U.S. on Japanese military activity in the Pacific.

Les Kinney, a retired government investigator who has spent 15 years looking for Earhart clues, said the photo "clearly indicates that Earhart was captured by the Japanese."

Japanese authorities told NBC News they have no record of Earhart being in their custody.

Related: The Search Is Still On for Amelia Earhart 80 Years After She Disappeared

The photo, marked "Jaluit Atoll" and believed to have been taken in 1937, shows a short-haired woman — potentially Earhart — on a dock with her back to the camera. (She's wearing pants, something for which Earhart was known.) She sits near a standing man who looks like Noonan — down to the hairline.

"The hairline is the most distinctive characteristic," said Ken Gibson, a facial recognition expert who studied the image. "It's a very sharp receding hairline. The nose is very prominent."

Gibson added: "It's my feeling that this is very convincing evidence that this is probably Noonan."

A newly discovered photo shows a woman who resembles Amelia Earhart and a man who appears to be her navigator, Fred Noonan. National Archives

The photo shows a Japanese ship, Koshu, towing a barge with something that appears to be 38-feet-long — the same length as Earhart's plane.

For decades, locals have claimed they saw Earhart's plane crash before she and Noonan were taken away. Native schoolkids insisted they saw Earhart in captivity. The story was even documented in postage stamps issued in the 1980s.

"We believe that the Koshu took her to Saipan [in the Mariana Islands], and that she died there under the custody of the Japanese," said Gary Tarpinian, the executive producer of the History special.

"We don't know how she died," Tarpinian said. "We don't know when."

It is not clear if the U.S. government knew who was in the photo. If it was taken by a spy, the U.S. may not have wanted to compromise that person by revealing the image. 

July 9th, History Channel - tune in!

Finally, someone is going to open the door to this tale...



My pals Les Kinney and Dick Spink were brought onto this show to share their research and evidence.  I can see that the show has followed some of my path - including an interview with Ms. Akimaya Blanco, whom I interviewed four years ago.  She's a sweetheart, and deserves to have her story told on a grander scale.

Honestly, they asked for my participation, but they didn't ask for Mike Harris' participation - and Mike is a good pal, and deserves as much credit as anyone for digging up her story.

But credit aside - this isn't about the time that Mike Harris put in - or the time that I've put in - it's about telling the story about what really happened to Amelia Earhart.
 

Ms. Blanco when I interviewed her.

I'm still holding onto the evidence that I have about her - that is beyond what this show will report - including the US Marines who saw her plane and watched as it was destroyed by the US Military... Either way, there's more to the story - what happened to her body and where the wreckage of her plane is located. (Both mysteries I have answers to.)
 

With Dick Spink, Jim Hayton and Mike Harris in Seattle.

Here's to opening the door on the real story!
 

One of the cells she was incarcerated in Saipan

Stay tuned.

The latest eyewitnesses who saw Earhart on Saipan

This is an edited clip of the footage that Mike Harris and I shot while on Saipan. 

 Included are new eyewitnesses who claim they or their relatives saw Amelia Earhart after she disappeared in 1937. There's more info and details below but this clip dovetails with the recent reports of finding pieces of her plane on Mili Atoll. Dick Spink and Les Kinney (Dick found the new pieces on Mili, Les is an investigator with nearly 30 years of investigative experience) are on their way to Saipan to survey where her body was found by US Forces. We wish them the best of luck.

 People may not like what these folks are saying - that Amelia was arrested and incarcerated in prison, that she was buried on Saipan, her body recovered, her plane and briefcase found, her plane was destroyed and buried by US forces - but important to remember these are eyewitness accounts. From US Marines, US war veterans, and people on Saipan who are amused by people who show up without any knowledge of the island.

 Saipan was claimed by Germany, sold to Spain, then became Japanese, and was part of Japan territory until 1944. (It was then run by the CIA until 1963, and is now US territory, so when you land at the airport it says "Welcome to the US." No different than Puerto Rico. So when her plane was picked up from Mili Atoll by the Japanese in 1937, according to these reports, it was taken to Japanese territory, where their Naval Headquarters was located. (Much the way Pearl Harbor was considered US territory, even though it was yet to be a state in 1941.)

 According to these eyewitness reports, Amelia was incarcerated on Japanese territory, in a Japanese cell by the Japanese authorities. Her briefcase was found by US Marine Robert Wallack, her plane was found on Aslito airfield by US Marines in June of 44, and US Marine E. Julious Nabers under command of Lt. Col. Clarence R. Wallace, decoded the messages that it had been found and was ordered to guard it. He says he guarded the plane on Aslito for 24 hours then decoded messages the military was going to fly it, and eventually destroy it. Other veterans (in this footage) saw it, and eventually watched as it was destroyed under orders from the Navy Dept. The plane was buried on the runway, which is now an international airfield. However, we have information as to where that location is, and have gotten the permits to survey the airfield. We plan on returning to do just that.

 I've been involved in this search since 1988, Mike Harris has been involved since the early 80's, and Les Kinney since around that time as well.  On behalf of Dick Spink, forensic aviation expert Jim Hayton, Les Kinney and Mike Harris (and the others who have contributed and participated) -  I'd say we all have one goal in common - to reveal whatever the truth may be about what happened to her.  We may not all appear in the various news articles regarding the latest "find" or "discovery" but we've all contributed to these revelations in our own personal way. Some of us have more "shoe leather in the game" than others, but at the end of the day it's not about who we are; it's about who she was.

Stay tuned for more details.

The Daily Mail investigates the latest reports from Dick Spink and Les Kinney

To recap:

Dick Spink is the school teacher from Seattle we've become pals with.  He and Mike Harris and Les Kinney took a trip to Mili Atoll this past spring and came back with more artifacts.  I've spoken at length with Les about some of his research, he's spot on and corrected me in a number of areas.  I'm fond of saying "we're just trying to get at the truth" so I appreciate it when someone who's done the research can cite chapter and verse of what's really going on.

But pretty much, everything we reported - her coming down in Mili, her plane being taken by the Japanese aboard a ship, Bilimon Amaron meeting her aboard the ship (Mike Harris shot that original footage), AE and Fred being taken to Saipan and incarcerated.  CBS newsman Fred Goerner reported a number of accurate details, including her dysentery (which Les believes she died from.)  As I acknowledged, people's memories are not sacrosanct, so reports from Saipan of when and where events happened are estimates at best.

But we know she was incarcerated.  We know she died on Saipan.  We know her plane was found at Aslito. We know her plane was burned by US forces. We know her briefcase was recovered. We know that her body (or part of it) was exhumed.  All of these details have both eyewitnesses, some alive, some dead, and all of them now have corroborating evidence either in the form of documents or of eyewitness footage.

Why did the US not try to rescue her once they knew she had been arrested?  Why did the Japanese not trumpet that they had caught a "spy" - something she may or may not have been, but there were two Fairchild Aerial surveillance cameras put into her plane.  We can't answer those questions, but I believe they're beside the point.  First it's important to examine what happened.  Then it's important to examine how it happened. Then it's important to examine why it happened.

We have both the what and how.  In a few weeks, Parker and Alcoa will release their report based on the pieces that Dick Spink found, that Jim Hayton has verified from his professional opinion, that Les Kinney has found and delivered to them the actual alloy document that is from the original specs on her plane, that Mike Harris got original footage of islanders back in the 1980's, that I got footage of US Marines who found her briefcase and plane, and most recently, got more reports from Saipan from people who claim they saw her there after 1937.  It is all coming together, and soon - it will be in a news story near you.

This article is from THE DAILY MAIL in the UK:

EXCLUSIVE: Are these bits of metal proof that Amelia Earhart died after being captured by the Japanese on remote Pacific atoll – and the U.S. government KNEW but covered it up? 

• Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan have not been heard of since July 1937 when they took off from New Guinea on 30th leg of round the world flight
• But two investigators hope the mystery could be at an end within weeks
• They believe they have two vital bits of evidence proving they landed in the Marshall Islands that day
• If correct, it could prove they died while in the hands of the Japanese military - and that the U.S. government decided hero pilot was 'expendable'

By KAREN EARNSHAW IN THE MARSHALL ISLANDS and RICHARD SHEARS FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 02:54 EST, 26 June 2015 | UPDATED: 10:49 EST, 26 June 2015

 
 
 
 
 

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Compelling new evidence found among the jagged coral of a tiny North Pacific island could be the key to finally unravelling the mystery of exactly what happened to U.S. aviator Amelia Earhart after she disappeared almost 80 years ago.

The corroding pieces of metal, discovered on the Mili atoll in the Marshall Islands, are currently being analysed to find out if they are the wheel well trim and dust cover from Amelia’s Lockheed Electra plane, which disappeared over the Pacific in 1937, while she and her navigator Fred Noonan were attempting to fly around the globe.

The two men behind the find believe that they are in possession of another piece of tantalising evidence that they claim proves she and her companion were captured by the Japanese and died while in their hands.

But by far the most incendiary allegation they make is that the U.S. government knew of the fate of Earhart and Noonan but did nothing to help them and then kept the dark secret for 78 years.

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Mystery: Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan had made it most of the way around the world when they disappeared in July 1937 - sparking an enduring hunt to get to the bottom of what happened

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Off course: One of the theories is that they landed on the coral shore of a small atoll in the Marshall Islands - a theory Dick Spink (pictured on the island) and Les Kinney hope to prove after finding a piece of metal

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Discovery: Two sleuths who have dedicated years to solving the mystery believe the circular piece of metal,  left, is a dust cover from the wheel hub of Earhart's plane. It is now with experts who are analysing its authenticity

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The fate of Earhart has been the subject of endless worldwide speculation in books, movies, TV specials and has brought numerous researchers into the vast Pacific looking for vital clues.

But the men behind these latest extraordinary claims hope their discoveries will end the speculation once and for all - and within a matter of weeks.

Les Kinney and Dick Spink are convinced a skinny piece of metal and another small, circular piece of metal - which are currently being analysed by the companies which built Earhart's plane - is actually the trim and dust cover from the aircraft's landing gear, which they say broke off when it smashed along the rough coral shore at Mili at about 10am on July 2.

If it is proven to be part of Earhart's Lockheed Electra 10E it means they were more than 850 miles from Howland Island, their next scheduled refuelling stop when they disappeared.

It also puts them 2,000 miles from the spot in the sea where other Earhart sleuths believe the plane, having run out of fuel, crashed on that same morning.

But more than that, if the plane landed on Mili - as Kinney and Spink are convinced it must have - it lends credence to speculation that the doomed adventurers fell into the hands of the Japanese, who just five years later would be engaged in all-out war with the Americans.

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Opening doors: If it does prove to be part of the Lockhead Electra 10E (pictured with Earhart in 1937), it will cause people to relook at a number of other theories - including what happened next to the adventurers

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Destroyed: A close up of the wheel, which is thought to have been torn up as they landed on the coral

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Clues: Spink with the plastic replica of the dust cover that was found on Mili Atoll and a copy of the wheel hub it would have attached to

It has long been rumoured that the 39-year-old pilot and her navigator were captured by Japanese troops who were setting up military bases in the Pacific. Those troops were said to be on board a transport ship heading to the island of Saipan, where Japan had a large military base.

There are those, with Spink and Kinney among them, who claim the Lockheed was put on carts used for transporting ammunition and then loaded on to a barge that was towed to the island of Jaluit. There, it is presumed the plane was lifted onto the ship and then taken to Saipan. 

Kinney and Spink, part of a team who travelled to the Mili island last January, found the remains of three of the ammunition cart's metal wheels and axles, while the wooden tops rotted away years ago.

Kinney said: 'The rails were moved and reset until the Japanese reached the lagoon side of the beach where the plane was loaded onto a small barge with the help of 40 locals'. 

They did not die as claimed by the government and the Navy when the Electra plunged into the Pacific - they died while in Japanese captivity on the island of Saipan in the Northern Marianas. 

Amelia Earhart's fourth cousin Wally  

Suspected by the Japanese of being spies for the Americans, some claim the pair were held on Saipan until they died despite the lack of physical evidence, with the cause of their deaths the subject of further controversy.

In 2009, Wally Earhart, Amelia’s fourth cousin, said the U.S. government continued to perpetrate a ‘massive cover-up’ about the couple and insisted they had died in Japanese custody.

‘They did not die as claimed by the government and the Navy when the Electra plunged into the Pacific - they died while in Japanese captivity on the island of Saipan in the Northern Marianas,’ said Mr Earhart, who did not reveal his sources.

He said that on Saipan, Noonan was beheaded by the Japanese and Earhart died soon after from dysentery and other ailments.

Kinney and many other Earhart enthusiasts believe her plane was dumped into a giant pit in Saipan along with Japanese aircraft by US marines in the aftermath of World War Two. The pit is under a runway that is still being used. One researcher is trying to get permission to unearth the planes.

Then there was Thomas E. Devine, who served in a postal Army unit who spoke of a letter from the daughter of a Japanese police official who claimed her father was responsible for Amelia’s execution. 

Photographs have also emerged over the years claiming to show Amelia in captivity - but these have been found to be fraudulent or to have been taken before she began her flight.

There are also the claims of U.S. troops who landed on Saipan after the war went on to insist they found a safe which, after it was blown open, was found to contain a briefcase filled with Amelia’s flying documents. Another claim, more dubious, tells of the discovery of her documents in a cave on Saipan.

Short film taken before Amelia Earhart's last flight surfaces

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Possibilities: If the duo are right, Earhart and Noonan were more than 850 miles off course. They were meant to land on Howland Island (centre), although others suspect they could have crashed nearer Gardner Island (bottom, far right). It would give credence to the idea they were taken to Japanese base at Saipan (top left)

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Route: Earhart was trying to become the first woman to fly around the world - starting in Oakland on May 20

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Not impossible: Many said it would be impossible to reach Mili in Earhart's plane, but Spink claims this fuel report proves it would have been possible - lending more credence to their claims

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Eyewitnesses: There are also a number of eyewitness accounts, including islanders who said they watched Earhart land to the right of where the research boat (circled) is moored

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More hints: These wheels could have been used by the Japanese to take the plane off the island - it would have originally had a wooden platform in the middle, but it has rotten away

But how would all this have been kept quiet for some many years? 

Kinney and Spink believe politics, national security and even Japanese loss of face all play their part in the failure for Earhart's fate to be exposed by the U.S. and Japan.

‘At the time, cultural attitudes in Japan placed great emphasis on “saving face”,’ Kinney told MailOnline. ‘The Japanese aversion to being humiliated would not allow an announcement Earhart had been found even if only a few days had elapsed since her discovery on Mili atoll.

‘No less a factor was the rise of Japanese militancy. In the 1930s, the Japanese military considered the United States an enemy and would have quickly concluded, whether it was true or not, that Amelia Earhart had been sent on a spy mission.’

That mission, he said, would likely have been an assessment of whether the Japanese were militarily fortifying the Marshall Islands.

What's more, he believes the U.S. knew within a few weeks that Earhart and Noonan were in the custody of the Japanese but could do nothing.

‘If they had, the Japanese would have known the U.S. had broken their closely-guarded military and diplomatic codes. The U.S. decided Earhart would become expendable.’ 

But while some will be quick to dismiss this in particular as the wild rantings of a conspiracy theorist, Kinney, a former U.S. Federal law enforcement agent, believes he has one more piece of evidence in his possession which will prove his claim beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Kinney said that after spending hundreds of hours combing national archives in the US, he unearthed one vital document that ‘would be tough for the government to refute.’ 

He is unwilling to make its contents public yet until his remaining investigations are complete. 

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Prisoners: Earhart, pictured arriving in Southampton, is said to have been taken from Mili Atoll by the Japanese, who - in some accounts - executed Noonan before she died of dysentery on Saipan

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Artifacts: These are other pieces of metal found on Mili. Most have been discounted as not coming from Earhart's plane, but the long piece of metal on the left may be significant

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Dedicated: Spink, in his workshop in Washington State, has spent thousands of dollars to prove his theory

Kinney has also relied heavily on an account of the discovery of what is said to have been Amelia’s briefcase on Saipan - a discovery made in July 1944 by U.S. Marine Robert Wallack.

After American troops landed on Saipan, Wallack was part of a team ordered to blow up a Japanese safe.

Inside, he has claimed, he found a briefcase that contained Amelia’s navigational gear, her passport, maps and other personal documents. He gave the briefcase to a high-ranking naval officer on the beach.

‘In my opinion,’ Kinney told MailOnline, ‘the briefcase was sent back to Washington, D.C., some time in late July or August of 1944. It most likely went to the White House and then on to some secure storage facility of the Navy. There is a good chance it later was destroyed.’

It was also in 1944, he says, that two Marine privates, on orders from a watchful Marine Intelligence officer, dug up a grave outside an old Catholic cemetery on Saipan. The skeletal remains of two people were thrown into a canister. 

The Japanese would have known the U.S. had broken their closely-guarded military and diplomatic codes. The U.S. decided Earhart would become expendable.

Les Kinney 

‘When the two privates asked what they were doing, the intelligence officer replied “Have you ever heard of Amelia Earhart?”’

Kinney added that in 1968, four researchers from Cleveland dug up the same grave and unearthed 189 bone fragments. Years later, with the advent of DNA, the researchers tried to retrieve the bones from the archaeological museum where they had been stored - but they were missing. 

‘Officials at the museum have no idea what happened to the bones,’ said Kinney.

Kinney, who has been investigating the Earhart mystery for 27 years, dismisses the competing theory that Amelia crashed on Gardner Island, now known as Nikumaroro, while trying to reach her intended destination on Howland Island.

He insisted ‘she didn’t make it - for whatever reason, Earhart missed Howland island from the west and continued in a north-easterly direction.’

Many say the distance to Mili would have been impossible for the Electra to cover.

But Kinney and Spink, a 53-year-old American science teacher who has spent thousands of dollars of his own money investigating the Earhart disappearance, believe it was possible. 

They insist that because Earhart had extra fuel tanks on board the plane she had ample fuel to make it - and Kinney has uncovered a Lockheed fuel study which he said proves she could have made it.

And his belief is backed up by contemporary accounts from the islands that they have collected on their visit. 

Kinney told MailOnline: ‘After leaving Lae, New Guinea, Earhart must have landed at Mili atoll just after 10am local time. The tidal charts for that time and date indicate the tide was beginning to recede.

‘Two Marshallese eyewitnesses to Earhart’s landing, fishing not far away, said two people left the plane in a small yellow boat.’

They add that numerous people in the Marshall Islands have told them of seeing the two fliers on Mili island before they were captured by the Japanese and taken on board the tramp steamer, the Koshu Maru.

The damaged Electra plane was loaded onto a barge and towed behind the Koshu Maru to two other atolls before mooring at Saipan.   

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Expendable: Some people also believe the Americans knew Earhart (pictured 1937) had been taken prisoner

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Abandoned: Despite being a hero, she was left to her fate as the Japanese believed she was a spy, it's claimed

Spink said he had been told by many people that local Bilimon Amram, who was half-Japanese and working as a medic on Jaluit atoll - one of the atolls the Koshu Maru stopped at to refuel - had claimed he treated Noonan for a leg injury.

‘Everyone told me Bilimon bandaged Fred’s infected leg,’ said Spink, accounts that also convinced him that the two Americans had been picked up on Mili Atoll. 

What's more, the men and other members of the Mili expedition found a number of pieces of metal they thought could have been part of a plane - discoveries made more compelling by the fact there were no other planes on the small island and no air battles had been fought overhead or close by.

But one of these pieces, thought to be from an auxiliary power unit, has since been discounted.

So the two men and the rest of the investigating team now pin their hopes on two remaining pieces. The first is the corroded circle they hope may have been the dust shield that fitted over the brake assembly of a GoodYear wheel.

The second is the thin piece of metal they believe is part of the wheel well of the plane.  

It is being tested, along with other pieces, by metals giant Alcoa and aviation firm Parker Aerospace who are comparing their chemical elements to those of contemporary aircraft. 

The official held belief is that the aircraft is 'on the bottom of the Pacific', 18,000 feet down but close to Howland, said Tom Crouch, senior curator at the U.S. National Air and Space Museum. 

In the meantime, Spink still clings to his memory of the extraordinary moment that led to today’s possible breakthrough in the Earhart mystery - a moment during a party with friends in the Marshall Islands.

‘Didn’t Amelia Earhart disappear in this part of the world?’ he asked.

‘Yes,’ a local man answered. ‘She landed on our island and my uncle watched her for two days.’ 

* At dawn on August 4, 1944, the 2,295-ton Koshu Maru, carrying air base supplies, was hit by four US torpedoes in the Makassar Strait and sank immediately with the loss of 273 passengers, 28 crew members and gunners and 1,239 Javanese labourers. 

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3139044/Are-bits-metal-proof-Amelia-Earhart-died-captured-Japanese-remote-Pacific-atoll-U-S-government-KNEW-covered-up.html#ixzz3eb9qfcJj
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