In another update on the lost Amelia Earhart aircraft: Rick Gillespie of The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) recently sent out an email with the subject line, “Possible Lead to Aircraft Wreckage.”

TIGHAR’s research points the wreck as being off Nikumaroro Island (pictured), an uninhabited coral atoll about 4.5 miles long and 1.5 miles wide. Formerly known as Gardner Island, it is part of the Phoenix Islands in the Western Pacific Ocean.

“A forgotten, throw-away comment in a 1997 interview with a former Nikumaroro resident has sparked an investigation that could result in further photographic proof that the Electra was torn to pieces when it went over the reef-edge into the pounding surf,” Gillespie wrote.

“ … Tapania Taeke had told us that as a child, 7 or 8 years old, she had seen ‘a piece of the wing of a small airplane’ on the reef flat in shallow water near shore and ‘a few other pieces of things laying around on the reef.’

“ … This was our first clue to where the aircraft had landed, but we failed to appreciate the significance of a comment Tapania let drop as we were leaving.”

From his notes at the time: “She said that one time some white men came in a government ship and had people take them over to Nutiran (the northwestern end of Nikumaroro) in a canoe. They took pictures of the airplane parts. She did not know their nationality.” And the mystery continues. (Photo: Google Maps)