Amelia Earhart's family would like to see her remains returned to her birthplace and her wrecked plane donated to the Smithsonian museum in DC, the missing pilot's great-nephew has revealed.

The family is hopeful that they may finally have answers surrounding Earhart's disappearance after a South Carolina-based deep sea exploration company last month released sonar images that they say may be the remains of the plane she was flying when she disappeared over the Pacific Ocean in 1937.

The blurry images were captured by an underwater submersible at a depth of 16,000ft after an extensive search in an area of the Pacific to the west of Earhart's planned destination, remote Howland Island.

Bram Kleppner, whose mother 92-year-old mother is one of the few relatives still alive who personally knew Earhart, spoke out for the first time following the incredible discovery and said the family would like to see her remains returned and buried in Atchison, Kansas.

'It was where Amelia was born and where she spent a lot of her youth being cared for by her grandparents,' Kleppner, 58, told The Times . 'With luck, it will end up in a place where anyone who's interested can go and spend some time with it.' 

He said the family remains hopeful hat the mystery of her disappearance may soon be solved, especially since the crew that carried out the expedition believe the discovered wreckage is 'roughly the right size' to be the Earhart's missing aircraft.