4. TIGHAR sent numerous investigations to Nikumaroro in search of Amelia Earhart
TIGHAR’s first expedition to the former Gardner Island, today known as Nikumaroro, took place in 1989. It claimed to have discovered “several pieces of aircraft debris in abandoned Gilbertese village” and determined the island “worthy of further investigation”. A subsequent expedition reported the tattered remains of shoes, “consistent with shoes worn by Earhart”. On later expeditions, TIGHAR reported on interviews with descendants of the former colonists on Nikumaroro (the colony was abandoned in 1963 and the settlers relocated to the Solomon Islands). The interviews revealed folklore among the settlers of the skeletons of a White man and woman being found on the island in 1938, so identified by virtue of the style of their clothes.
An aluminum panel, which appeared to have been manufactured to the specifications in use in the 1930s, also turned up on the island. Its rivet and bolt hole patterns did not match any of the existing Electra’s examined. However, photographs of Amelia’s Electra (which was heavily modified to her specifications) indicated that on her last flight a window had been covered over with a piece of metal, presumably aluminum. TIGHAR speculated “with a high degree of certainty” the found piece to be the window covering seen in the photographs. They speculated the panel was removed to improve ventilation as the aircraft sat on Nikumaroro’s reef in the hot sun, after arriving safely at the island. Still, no indisputable evidence of Earhart and Noonan at the atoll had yet been found.