Metal panel found on Pacific island may be from Amelia Earhart’s plane

OXFORD, Pa. – A group trying to solve the Amelia Earhart mystery has new reason to think a piece of aluminum found on a Pacific atoll came from her lost plane.

The Philly.com website reports Thursday that rivet holes on the 2-foot (0.6-meter)-wide piece seem to match the design of a window patch made on Earhart’s plane before her 1937 flight.

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Ric Gillespie of Oxford heads The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery. The group of experts and enthusiasts has made 10 trips to the remote Pacific atoll of Nikumaroro where some think Earhart’s Lockheed Electra went down.

Gillespie says he’s more convinced than ever after inspecting a similar Electra being restored in Kansas.

He and other experts and enthusiasts will return to the island in June for another research trip.