Eleanor Stearns, who portrayed Amelia Earhart in a performance at View on Monday evening, July 2, answered questions from the audience following her program about the famous aviator’s disappearance over the western Pacific on July 2, 1937.

For years one of the  theories has been that Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, landed on the uninhabited Gardner Island, now Nikumaroro, and they died there as castaways, but not enough evidence has been found to support that hypothesis.

Responding to a question about the latest search for Earhart’s plane, Stearns said that a photograph has recently surfaced that might offer a clue to what really happened.

The photograph was taken near the island of Nikumaroro in the Republic of Kiribati, three months after Earhart and Noonan, and their Lockheed Electra plane vanished during their around the world flight.

“In one corner of the picture something was sticking out of the water and after careful analysis someone identified it as the landing gear of a Lockheed Electra, “ Stearns said, which leads to the theory that Earhart and her navigator crashed off the coast of Nikumaroro and died in the sea.

Stearns said that a special expedition was setting out on July 3, with advanced underwater technology to search that area for evidence that her plane may have crashed off the coast of Nikumaroro 75 years ago.

To follow the daily postings of the search on the web, go to Tighar.org.