Never-before-seen photographs of aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart show her beside her plane hours before she disappeared while attempting to fly around the world.
The black and white images, discovered 89 years on, show the record breaking American pilot standing outside of her Lockheed Electra 10e aircraft.
In one photo, she is seen dressed in a short-sleeved checked shirt and trousers with her left hand on her hip talking to a doctor.
In another she and her navigator Fred Noonan can be seen sitting in the shade in front of the plane with a fuel truck behind them.
The photos were taken while Earthart and Noonan stopped off in Darwin, Australia, to refuel while on her quest to become the first female pilot to circumnavigate the world.
The images were found in an old photo album compiled by a sailor in the Royal Australian Navy.
The other snaps in it are of life on board HMAS Moresby in the 1930s. Darwin is a major navy port and so it is likely the unknown seaman took the photos of Earhart and Noonan while he was docked there.
The album now belongs to a relative who has made it available for sale at auctioneers Henry Aldridge & Son.
Right after these images were taken, Earhart and Noonan flew east to Lae, New Guinea to refuel before departing on July 2 for Howland Island, 2,556 miles away.
However, they did not make it and were tragically never seen again.
The leading theory was that they ran out of fuel and crashed into the Pacific although extensive searches of the area found no sign of the Lockheed.
Others claim she landed on a nearby island before dying of starvation.
Another theory claimed Earhart and Noonan were captured by the Japanese after they navigated their way to the South Seas.
Last November, US President Donald Trump ordered the records of the last radio communications between Earhart and the US Coastguard vessel Itasca be declassified.
The transmissions clearly demonstrated that Earhart was sounding increasingly desperate saying they were near Howland Island but couldn’t find it and were low on fuel.
More than nine decades on, investigators continue to search for the wreckage of her plane.
Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said: ‘There are very few images of Amelia Earhart that are known of this close to that fateful last flight.
‘They have been in private hands for almost 90 years. They were found in an innocuous photo album by a client who was given it by a relative.
‘He was going through the album of all these navy photos and saw them. He knew what they were because the images are captioned.
‘The photos were taken in Darwin which had a big naval base. It would seem they were taken by an Australian seaman who visited the airfield during the brief period Amelia Earhart was there.’
The photos are valued at between £800 to £1,200 and are being sold on January 31.
