A new image appears to show Amelia Earhart preparing to board a boat in the Marshall Islands after she vanished from the sky in 1937

The legendary aviatress was last heard from on July 2 of that year, noting the poor visibility and her declining gas levels in a series of transmissions that morning

She was never seen or heard from again after her plane went down during her journey from Papua New Guinea to Howland Island, a distance of 2,556 miles

The photograph, taken by a US spy working behind enemy lines, shows the pilot and navigator Fred Noonan along with the wreckage of Earhart's plane 

This would mean that Earhart and Noonan were almost certainly taken captive and held as prisoners of war by the Japanese after surviving the crash 

It also means that the government was aware that Earhart was taken captive, claims that will be explored this Sunday on the History special 'Amelia Earhart: The Lost Evidence'