Researchers believe Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan may have landed on uninhabited Nikumaroro in July, 1937 after their twin-engined Lockheed Electra aircraft ran out of fuel on a round-the-world flight.

So far a search has failed to find evidence that Earhart and Noonan came down on the island, around 1,000 miles from Fiji.

The SS Norwich City, which ran aground on remote Nikumaroro almost a decade before Amelia Earhart disappeared (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

The area is close to where the SS Norwich City ran aground in a storm in 1929.

Little now remains of the 400ft, 4,000 ton cargo steamer, which struck a reef after it was driven off course........

© Norwich Evening News