A seasoned British pilot believes he may have found the location of Amelia Earhart's lost aircraft in Google Earth images of an uninhabited island in the Pacific Ocean. Justin Myers reportedly made the potential breakthrough in the decades-long mystery by applying his over 25 years of flying experience to the conundrum the pioneering aviatrix found herself in during the final moments of her doomed flight. "As a pilot, I thought to myself, if I were in Amelia's position, trying to find a needle in a haystack low on fuel," he explained, "where would I force land my Lockheed Electra?"

That question led Myers to look at Nikumaroro Island, a remote spot in the Pacific Ocean that many researchers have long suspected could be where Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, met their untimely end. Studying Google Earth images of the location, he was stunned to see a series of shapes on the east coast of the coral atoll that bear a striking resemblance to the wreckage of a small plane, including what he suspects are the wheels, two engines, and the fuselage of a "vintage aircraft."

While he conceded that he cannot definitively state that the perceived crash site is that of Earhart's long-lost Lockheed Electra, Myers indicated that he is "99 percent certain" that this is the case. As such, he hopes to organize an expedition to the location to either prove or disprove his theory. To that end, despite his considerable confidence, skeptics will undoubtedly point to previous instances wherein peculiar shapes seemed to provide an answer to the longstanding aviation mystery only for such breakthroughs to wind up as dispiriting busts.

Though still nascent, Myers' proposed search for Earhart's plane would be the third serious hunt for the lost aircraft to make news this year. An expedition set for sometime this month will see South Carolina researcher Michael Carra journey to Papua New Guinea to examine an anomaly that he is "90 percent" confident is the elusive Lockheed Electra. Also planned for November is a Perdue-backed search at Nikumaroro that also aims to examine oddities spotted in satellite images of the island. Whether or not this proverbial full-court press will result in the Earhart mystery finally being solved remains to be seen, but if it does not come to pass, it certainly will not be from a lack of trying.