The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery said aluminum debris found on a South Pacific beach strengthens the possibility a sonar blip recorded off Nikumaroro Atoll in Kiribati is the fuselage of Amelia Earhart's Lockheed Electra.

Earhart, who was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, was attempting to flying around the world in 1397. She was flying close to the equator when she and navigator Fred Noonan vanished into thin air. Earhart was 39 at the time of her disappearance.

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What happened to the twin-engine aircraft and the duo has remained one of aviation's most enduring mysteries.

TIGHAR said that the chunk of aluminum, which was found in 1991, strongly resembles a 23-by-19-inch patch installed to replace a window in Earhart's Electra during a stopover flight in Florida.

"The strong possibility that Artifact 2-2-V-1 is the 'Miami Patch' means that the many fractures, tears, dents and gouges evident on the metal may be important clues to the fate-and resting place-of the aircraft itself," the statement read.

The possible chunk from the plane also supports the chance that the "unusual feature" seen in sonar images taken by the international agency in an expedition to the atoll in 2012 might be the missing pilot's plane resting 600 feet at the bottom of the sea.

One theory assumes the patch was detached from the plane after Earhart and her navigator, possibly out of fuel, crash-landed on a reef at Nikumaroro, which was then known as Gardner Island. The pair then sent out radio messages for at least five days.

The sea then claimed the aircraft with its rising tides and surf, leaving the two stranded and waiting for a rescue team that would never arrive.

TagsDebris, Aluminum patch, amelia earhart, Sonar, Nikumaroro, Kiribati, Lockheed Electra, Fred Noonan