1937年7月，阿米莉亚·埃尔哈特和她的领航员弗雷德·努南在太平洋上空失踪，她试图成为第一位在赤道上空环球飞行的女性。
Amelia Earhart’s attempt to become the first woman to fly around the globe at the equator ended in mystery when she and her navigator, Fred Noonan, disappeared over the Pacific Ocean in July 1937.
随着她失踪90周年的到来，一个新的探险队正在着手最终确定在广阔的太平洋上发生了什么。这次探险发现了至关重要的新证据。
With the 90th anniversary of her disappearance on the horizon, a new expedition is setting out to finally determine what happened over the vast Pacific. This expedition has what it believes is crucial new evidence.
来自印第安纳州普渡大学和考古遗产研究所（ALI）的研究小组定于周六前往无人居住的尼库马罗罗岛，以确定岛上泻湖的异常是否是埃尔哈特失踪的飞机。
The team from Purdue University in Indiana and the Archaeological Legacy Institute (ALI) is scheduled to depart for the uninhabited island of Nikumaroro on Saturday to determine if an anomaly in the island’s lagoon is Earhart’s missing plane.
尼库马罗罗是太平洋岛国基里巴斯的一部分，长期以来一直被认为是埃尔哈特和努南去世的地方。
Part of the low-lying Pacific island nation of Kiribati, Nikumaroro has long been considered the place where Earhart and Noonan died.
两人于1937年7月2日从新几内亚起飞，前往豪兰岛，在那里加油，然后继续前往夏威夷，并在加利福尼亚完成环球航行。
The pair took off from New Guinea on July 2, 1937, on the leg to the island of Howland, where they were to refuel before continuing on to Hawaii and completing the circumnavigation in California.
然而，途中出了问题，尽管美国海岸警卫队的一艘船可以听到埃尔哈特的无线电传输，她的洛克希德伊莱克特拉一定非常接近，但她从未被发现。
Something went amiss en route, however, and even though a US Coast Guard ship could hear Earhart’s radio transmissions and her Lockheed Electra must have been tantalizingly close, she was never found.
最后的一条信息说，她正在一条南北航行的航线上航行，这条航线给了她在燃料耗尽之前找到陆地的最佳机会。那条线经过尼库马罗。
One of the last messages said she was running on a north-south navigational line that gave her the best chance of finding land before her fuel ran out. That line went through Nikumaroro.
降落在珊瑚礁上1988年，国际历史飞机回收组织（TIGHAR）的研究人员第一个提出埃尔哈特可能已经到达尼库马罗罗并降落在其边缘珊瑚礁上。
Landing on a coral reef In 1988, researchers from the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) were the first to suggest that Earhart could have reached Nikumaroro and landed on its fringing coral reef.
TIGHAR第一次访问该岛是在1989年，该组织已经返回了七次，发现了引人注目的文物，包括挡风玻璃上的飞机铝和有机玻璃。
TIGHAR’s first visit to the island was in 1989, and the group has returned seven more times, turning up compelling artifacts, including lengths of aircraft aluminum and plexiglass from a windscreen.
该小组发现了一个香水瓶，一个20世纪30年代中期在宾夕法尼亚州制造的拉链，飞机库存中列出的同一品牌的口袋刀的零件，以及一个女人的鞋跟。
The group found a scent bottle, a zip made in Pennsylvania in the mid-1930s, parts of a pocket knife of the same brand listed in the aircraft inventory, and the heel of a woman’s shoe.
档案研究发现，1940年在岛上发现的人类遗骸最初被认为是埃尔哈特或努南的遗骸，但在太平洋战争的混乱中丢失了。
Archive research discovered that human remains discovered on the island in 1940 were initially believed to be of Earhart or Noonan — but were lost in the chaos of the Pacific war.
尽管进行了搜查，但还没有人发现这件“确凿证据”的文物，这件物品只能来自注定失败的航班。
Despite the searches, no one has yet found the “smoking gun” artifact, an item that could only have come from the doomed flight.
卫星图像带来了新的希望探险队负责人、考古遗产研究所（ADL）执行主任里克·佩蒂格鲁（Rick Pettigrew）认为，这些元素可能发现了无可争议的证据。
Satellite images offer fresh hope Expedition leader Rick Pettigrew, executive director of the Archaeological Legacy Institute (ALI), believes the elements may have uncovered incontrovertible evidence.
2015年，一场强大的热带气旋席卷了中太平洋，改变了该岛及其泻湖的地理特征。在接下来的几年里拍摄的卫星图像显示了在Taraia海角附近的浅水中可能是飞机机身和机翼的轮廓。
A powerful tropical cyclone tore through the central Pacific in 2015, shifting geographical features on the island and in its lagoon. Satellite images taken over the following years showed what might be the outline of an aircraft fuselage and wings in shallow water off the Taraia promontory.
“卫星图像中的这个物体大小正好可以代表Electra的机身和尾部，”ALI网站说。“它似乎也非常反光，很可能是金属。它位于非常浅的水域，大部分被沉积物覆盖，在一个地方，水流会把一个物体通过塔蒂曼通道，海洋和珊瑚礁的开口漂浮到泻湖。”Pettigrew的17人团队打算利用无人机摄影、磁力计遥感和声纳装置，将所有精力集中在图像显示碎片可能所在的地方。如果初步结果是肯定的，水力挖掘机将挖掘沉积物。
“This object in the satellite images is exactly the right size to represent the fuselage and tail of the Electra,” the ALI website states. “It also appears to be very reflective and is likely to be metallic. It lies in very shallow water, largely covered by sediment, in a place where the current would bring an object floating into the lagoon through Tatiman Passage, the opening to the ocean and the reef.”Pettigrew’s 17-strong team intends to focus all its efforts on the place where the images indicate debris may be located, using drone photography, remote sensing with magnetometers and sonar units. If the initial results are positive, a hydraulic dredge will excavate sediment.
根据ADL的探险计划，“一旦我们暴露了足够多的物体，我们就应该能够识别它。”“如果它是由飞机铝制成的，并且具有伊莱克特拉号的特定形状和铆钉图案，我们就会知道我们已经找到了埃尔哈特飞机的残骸。”寻找“确凿的证据”ADL的大部分理论都基于TIGHAR进行的研究和实地调查，但其执行董事里克·吉莱斯皮（Ric Gillespie）并不相信研究人员会找到“确凿证据”。
“Once we have a sufficient portion of the object exposed, we should be able to identify it,” according to the ALI’s expedition plan. “If it is made of aircraft aluminum and has the specific shape and rivet patterns of the Electra, we will know that we have found the remains of Earhart’s aircraft.”In search of a ‘smoking gun’Much of the ALI’s theory is based on the research and fieldwork carried out by TIGHAR, but its executive director, Ric Gillespie, is not convinced the researchers will find the “smoking gun.”
吉莱斯皮告诉德国之声：“佩蒂格鲁认为旧卫星图像中可见的物体是飞机残骸，但看起来不像飞机残骸。”“它看起来就像一棵死去的熊猫树，在风暴中被连根拔起，被冲上了塔莱亚。”
“The object visible in old satellite imagery that Pettigrew believes is aircraft wreckage does not look like aircraft wreckage,” Gillespie told DW. “It looks like a dead pandanus tree that was uprooted in a storm and washed up on Taraia.”
吉莱斯皮指出：“佩蒂格鲁认为残骸不再可见，因为它被埋在淤泥中。”“他从未去过那个地方，也不知道那里的淤泥只有几英寸深。”他说，TIGHAR的团队在2001年和2007年用金属探测器搜查了同一地点，并没有留下任何痕迹。然而吉莱斯皮仍然相信埃尔哈特就在尼库马罗。
“Pettigrew thinks the wreckage is no longer visible because it is buried in silt,” Gillespie noted. “He has never been to that location and does not understand that the silt there is only a few inches deep.”Teams from TIGHAR searched the same location in 2001 and 2007 with metal detectors and drew blanks, he said. Yet Gillespie remains convinced that Earhart was on Nikumaroro.
他说：“我认为飞机被冲过珊瑚礁边缘后立即沉没，并在海浪中被撞成碎片。”“主要部件最终被埋在水下山体滑坡中……或者长满珊瑚。我们已经找到了要找到的东西。”
“I think the aircraft sank immediately after being washed over the reef edge and was smashed to pieces in the surf,” he said. “Major components were eventually buried in underwater landslides … or grown over with coral. We have found what there is to find.”
多萝西·科克伦（Dorothy Cochrane）担任华盛顿特区史密森尼国家航空航天博物馆馆长35年多来一直在关注埃尔哈特的搜寻进展，自最近退休以来一直在这样做，她说埃尔哈特仍然对很多人着迷，“因为它是”20世纪并持续到21世纪的最大未解之谜。'“另一种情况她对1937年发生的事情有不同的看法。她认为，如果埃尔哈特在距离豪兰很近的情况下几乎没有燃料，那么就不可能再飞行640公里（400英里）到达尼库马罗。科克伦还表示，其他游客和岛上存在多年的一个小定居点可以解释作为岛上遇难者证据的物品。
Dorothy Cochrane, who has monitored progress in the search for Earhart for more than 35 years as curator at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, and continues to do so since her recent retirement, says Earhart still holds fascination for so many people “because it is ‘the greatest unsolved mystery of the 20th and continuing into the 21st centuries.'”An alternative scenario She has a different view of what happened in 1937. She argues that if Earhart was nearly out of fuel while still close to Howland, it would have been impossible to fly another 640 kilometers (400 miles) to Nikumaroro. Cochrane also says that items cited as evidence of a castaway on the island can be explained by other visitors and by a small settlement that existed there for several years.
她说：“根据飞行的事实，我相信埃尔哈特和努南当时就在豪兰岛附近，但在燃油耗尽之前找不到它。”
“I believe that Earhart and Noonan were in the general vicinity of Howland Island, based on the facts of the flight, but just could not find it before they ran out of fuel,” she said.
她说：“豪兰岛只是大海晨光中的一个小点。”这表明埃尔哈特无法建立无线电联系来引导她走最后几英里到达目的地。
“Howland Island was a tiny speck in the morning light of a vast sea,” she said, suggesting Earhart could not establish radio contact to guide her the last few miles to her destination.
科克伦认为伊莱克特拉号位于豪兰附近的海底。其他人则提出了这一理论，近年来对该地区进行了多次搜查。
Cochrane believes the Electra lies on the seabed near Howland. Others have advanced this theory, and several searches of the area have been carried out in recent years.
然而，如果佩蒂格鲁的领先优势得到回报，航空业近90年的谜题将结束。
If Pettigrew’s lead pays off, however, it will conclude aviation’s nearly 90-year puzzle.