Researchers hunting for Amelia Earhart and her lost plane believe they've discovered a missing part of the aircraft that could be the first solid clue after the aviatrix's disappearance in 1937.

Amelia Earhart, an American, was the first female aviator to cross the Atlantic Ocean. She disappeared over the Pacific Ocean on July 2, 1937 in an attempt to circumnavigate the world with her navigator, Fred Noonan.

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An aluminum piece found on the uninhabited Nikumaroro atoll in the Pacific in 1991 near the area where Earhart had disappeared is now considered part of Earhart's Lockheed Electra with "a high degree of certainty."

On June 1, 1937, Earhart flew from Miami in her second attempt to fly around the world. She took off on July 2, 1937 from Lae, New Guinea in the Pacific and needed 7,000 miles to complete her journey around the equator. She and Noonan then mysteriously disappeared.

The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery is dedicated to the search of Earhart's plane. They believe the fragment is probably a patch is installed as a temporary replacement to fix her plane's custom made window.

According to TIGHAR executive director Ric Gillespie, a special window in her Lockheed Electra was removed and replaced by an aluminum patch during her second world flight attempt. This patch is unique to her plane and can be compared to a fingerprint of an individual.

The Nikumaroro atoll in the Pacific has been the primary investigation site for the search of the aircraft. Investigators strongly believe this is where Earhart and Noonan were forced to make an emergency landing on their way to Howland Island some 350 miles away.

TIGHAR has conducted 10 expeditions to the area. Last year, the agency discovered an "anomaly" in the sonar images of the ocean floor that could be linked to the plane's main body.

TIGHAR researchers believe Earhart sent distress calls from Nikumaroro for five days before the plane sank into the ocean's abyss that stranded her and Noonan. The fragment washed up on the shore when the plane broke up underwater.

Researchers and investigators believe this aluminum patch came from the anomaly located 600 feet underwater. The anomaly will be examined further by TIGHAR's Remote Operated Vehicle during an expedition in June 2015.

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