New evidence shows Earhart may have survived plane crash

Amelia Earhart may have survived her plane crash into the Pacific Ocean and instead died as a Japanese prisoner, according to new evidence revealed in advance of a History Channel documentary. The film, set to air Sunday, argues Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, crash-landed in the Japanese-held Marshall Islands, where the Japanese military picked them up and held them as spies. Until now, experts agreed Earhart and Noonan fatally crashed into the Pacific on July 2, 1937, and that their bodies were lost at sea. But a mislabeled photo found in the U.S. National Archives, judged authentic based on facial recognition and forensic testing, shows what appears to be Earhart and Noonan on a dock with Japanese officials watching the crashed plane being loaded on a barge. The film claims the U.S. government knew about their capture and still closed the case on their disappearance. “She may very well be the first casualty of World War II,” posits documentary host and former FBI Executive Assistant Director Shawn Henry.