By Daily Mail Reporter PUBLISHED: 09:51 EST, 23 June 2013 | UPDATED: 12:17 EST, 23 June 2013 Researchers say that recently unearthed photos of the remote Pacific island near the site of a reef where they believe Amelia Earhart's plane may have landed during her doomed 1937 flight around the world could prove that the aviator and her navigator lived for a time as castaways, and didn't die in a supposed crash as previously thought. Last month, researchers contracted by The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) found what they say are sonar images of Earhart's plane just off the coast of what is now Nikumaroro Island, which is part of the Phoenix Islands roughly 3,000 miles northeast of Australia in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
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Earhart's plane disappeared in the Pacific Ocean during her doomed 1937 flight around the world
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Researchers believe they've found sonar images showing parts of her plane lodged on a coastal shelf just off the shores of Nikumaroro Island, about 3,000 miles northeast of Australia
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New photos taken about a year after her disappearance could prove whether Earhart survived after her plane went down and lived as a castaway on the island
Gardner Island: This tiny, @placeholder island had its share of visitors before Earhart supposedly landed her plane on a reef off its northwestern shore