A team from The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) carried out an extensive underwater survey off the western end of the tiny Pacific atoll of Nikumaroro, which was formerly a British colony known as Gardener Island, in July.
Using an array of underwater technology, including multi-beam sonar used by the US Navy to construct underwater maps, TIGHAR had hoped that their seventh trip to the island where they believe Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, crash-landed and subsequently died, would bear immediate fruit.
It was hoped that the remotely operated vehicles would be able to quickly locate the largest and heaviest components of the aircraft but the expedition was dogged by technical problems and a far more testing underwater environment than had been anticipated.
While the initial reaction to the hours of underwater video was one of disappointment, closer scrutiny has revealed tantalising new clues.
"I have thus far made a cursory review of less than 30 per cent of the expedition's video and have identified what appears to be an interesting debris field," Jeff Glickman, a forensic imaging specialist, told Discovery News.
A team from the Discovery Channel was on the expedition and a documentary on the search for Earhart's plane was due to be aired in the US on Sunday evening.
The debris field apparently includes a number of components of the landing gear, including a wheel, a strut and a fender.
The location of the items is also consistent with a photo taken in October 1937, that seems to show a similar wheel assembly protruding from the reef flats around the island.
The photo was taken three months after Earhart disappeared on a flight that would cement her place in flying history as the first woman to circumnavigate the world.
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