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 When you Tweet with a location, Twitter stores that location. You can switch location on/off before each Tweet and always have the option to delete your location history. Learn more ||||| Famed aviator Amelia Earhart may have survived her round-the-world attempt only to be later captured by Japanese forces, according to a newly discovered photograph. 
 
 Investigators behind a new History channel documentary believe the trailblazing American pilot is pictured in a photo found in a National Archives file. The image purportedly shows Earhart alive after her plane fell low on fuel during her mission to become the first woman to circumnavigate the globe. 
 
 The photo depicts a woman, believed to be Earhart, and a man who closely resembles her navigator, Fred Noonan, on a dock. A Japanese ship can be seen in the background carrying what appears to be Earhart’s plane. 
 
 Les Kinney/National Archives 
 
 Former FBI Executive Assistant Director Shawn Henry dives into the new possible clue in a two-hour History special called Amelia Earhart: The Lost Evidence, which premieres Sunday. 
 
 Earhart was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, achieving the feat in 1932. She vanished somewhere over the Pacific Ocean on July 2, 1937, after her plane ran low on fuel on her round-the-world trip. Her fate has been debated for decades and has sparked several conspiracy theories. ||||| Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. 
 
 / Updated By Tom Costello and Daniel Arkin 
 
 A newly discovered photograph suggests legendary aviator Amelia Earhart, who vanished 80 years ago on a round-the-world flight, survived a crash-landing in the Marshall Islands. 
 
 The photo, found in a long-forgotten file in the National Archives, shows a woman who resembles Earhart and a man who appears to be her navigator, Fred Noonan, on a dock. The discovery is featured in a new History channel special, "Amelia Earhart: The Lost Evidence," that airs Sunday. 
 
 Independent analysts told History the photo appears legitimate and undoctored. Shawn Henry, former executive assistant director for the FBI and an NBC News analyst, has studied the photo and feels confident it shows the famed pilot and her navigator. 
 
 "When you pull out, and when you see the analysis that's been done, I think it leaves no doubt to the viewers that that's Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan," Henry told NBC News. 
 
 Earhart was last heard from on July 2, 1937, as she attempted to become the first woman pilot to circumnavigate the globe. She was declared dead two years later after the U.S. concluded she had crashed somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, and her remains were never found. 
 
 Amelia Earhart sits in her Electra plane cabin at the airport in Burbank, California, on May 20, 1937. Albert Bresnik / Paragon Agency via AP 
 
 But investigators believe they have found evidence Earhart and Noonan were blown off course but survived the ordeal. The investigative team behind the History special believes the photo may have been taken by someone who was spying for the U.S. on Japanese military activity in the Pacific. 
 
 It is not clear how Earhart and Noonan could have flown so far off course. 
 
 Les Kinney, a retired government investigator who has spent 15 years looking for Earhart clues, said the photo "clearly indicates that Earhart was captured by the Japanese." 
 
 Japanese authorities told NBC News they have no record of Earhart being in their custody. 
 
 Related: The Search Is Still On for Amelia Earhart 80 Years After She Disappeared 
 
 The photo, marked "Jaluit Atoll" and believed to have been taken in 1937, shows a short-haired woman — potentially Earhart — on a dock with her back to the camera. (She's wearing pants, something for which Earhart was known.) She sits near a standing man who looks like Noonan — down to the hairline. 
 
 "The hairline is the most distinctive characteristic," said Ken Gibson, a facial recognition expert who studied the image. "It's a very sharp receding hairline. The nose is very prominent." 
 
 Gibson added: "It's my feeling that this is very convincing evidence that this is probably Noonan." 
 
 A newly discovered photo shows a woman who resembles Amelia Earhart and a man who appears to be her navigator, Fred Noonan. National Archives 
 
 The photo shows a Japanese ship, Koshu, towing a barge with something that appears to be 38-feet-long — the same length as Earhart's plane. 
 
 For decades, locals have claimed they saw Earhart's plane crash before she and Noonan were taken away. Native schoolkids insisted they saw Earhart in captivity. The story was even documented in postage stamps issued in the 1980s. 
 
 "We believe that the Koshu took her to Saipan [in the Mariana Islands], and that she died there under the custody of the Japanese," said Gary Tarpinian, the executive producer of the History special. 
 
 "We don't know how she died," Tarpinian said. "We don't know when." 
 
 Josephine Blanco Akiyama, who lived on Saipan as a child, has long claimed she saw Earhart in Japanese custody. 
 
 "I didn't even know it was a woman, I thought it was a man," said Akiyama. "Everybody was talking about her — they were talking about in Japanese. That's why I know that she's a woman. They were talking about a woman flyer." 
 
 It is not clear if the U.S. government knew who was in the photo. If it was taken by a spy, the U.S. may not have wanted to compromise that person by revealing the image. ||||| Former FBI official Shawn Henry investigates new, shocking evidence that aviator Amelia Earhart was captured by the Japanese military, including a photograph that purports to show Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan alive after their disappearance. Evidence includes documents containing new information indicating that the U.S. government knew that she was in the custody of a foreign power, and may have covered it up.
– A new History documentary floats one of the most provocative theories yet about Amelia Earhart: The show focuses on a newly surfaced photo that some think proves she and navigator Fred Noonan survived their 1937 plane crash. Investigators with the documentary say the image shows Earhart sitting on a dock with her back to the camera and Noonan standing to the far left, reports Time. The person believed to be Earhart is looking out at a ship that appears to be towing a plane. The image fits into a larger theory: After being blown off course, Earhart crashed in the Marshall Islands, then got picked up by the Japanese military, which apparently thought she and Noonan were spies. They were then taken to Saipan, where they're believed to have died in prison. History buff and retired federal agent Les Kinney says he found the "misfiled" photo in the National Archives, per People. "When you pull out, and when you see the analysis that's been done, I think it leaves no doubt to the viewers that that's Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan," former FBI official Shawn Henry tells NBC News. The photo has Office of Naval Intelligence markings and is labeled "Marshall Islands, Jaluit Atoll, Jaluit Island, Jaluit Harbor." The photo, which isn't dated, might have been taken by someone spying for the US on Japan's military operations in the Pacific. Not everyone is buying it, however. Dorothy Cochrane, curator for the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's Aeronautics Department, tells People that the idea Japan took Earhart prisoner is "ridiculous." She had not yet seen the show, which airs Sunday night.