One of the most fascinating mysteries in aviation history could be solved with the help of two Ontario DNA labs.

Genesis Genomics and Warnex Pro-DNA Services are working with a team of volunteer experts to help solve the 72-year-old disappearance of aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart.

Earhart and her flight navigator Fred Noonan disappeared in July, 1937, during an attempt to circumnavigate the globe. It is thought that Earhart went down somewhere in the Phoenix Islands, a group of uninhabited Pacific islands north of Samoa, between Hawaii and Australia.

A non-profit group, The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR), has probed the Earhart disappearance for the last 21 years. Through its research of archaeological and anecdotal evidence, the group has come to believe that Earhart's twin-engine monoplane did not crash but instead was forced to land on one of the Phoenix Islands.

The theory is that Earhart and Noonan became disoriented while trying to find their destination of Howland Island. With fuel running low, they landed on the reef-flat on tiny Gardner Island, near the wreck of a ship that had run aground there eight years before.

Earhart and Noonan waited on the uninhabited island for rescue that never came, trying to send out distress calls that were too weak to be interpreted, the TIGHAR theory goes. The castaways survived for a time of provision left behind from the shipwreck rescue, and then in the island jungle before succumbing to either thirst, hunger or the elements.

As for what became of the Earhart plane, TIGHAR theorizes that much of it was broken and up lost  between 1938 and 1965. That's when British officers tried to establish a colony on the six-kilometre-long island. But with trouble maintaining supplies of fresh water, they eventually abandoned the post.

TIGHAR's theory is that during the period of habitation, the colonists found the Earhart wreckage and used scraps for fishing tackle and other uses, while other bits were washed out to sea or were buried by winds.

TIGHAR's director, American Richard Gillespie, led a 15-member expedition team to Gardner Island, now called Nikumaroro, in the summer of 2007 to try to solve the mystery. They recovered artifacts that may have belonged to Earhart, including pieces of broken glass that match a 1930s compact mirror.

They brought the artifacts home to be analyzed in a lab. But to Gillespie's frustration, DNA from the materials was contaminated during the collection process with his own DNA.

So next May, the recovery group plans to launch a $500,000 expedition to the island to seek out more items. The team of engineers, archaeologists, and others hope to find scraps of material in the island's abandoned and overgrown village that might indicate Earhart was on the island. They also expect that portions of Earhart's skeleton still remain there but have yet to be found.

Whatever they find, they'll bring home. And that's where the Canadian DNA labs come in.

TIGHAR has commissioned the services of Genesis Genomics and Warnex Pro-DNA Services to try to extract DNA from any artifacts they recover. They will then see if it matches that of a DNA sample provided by a relative of Earhart.

Curtis Hildebrandt, an analyst Warnex Pro-DNA Services, says the work won't be easy. Teasing out DNA from tiny artifacts that have been exposed to the elements for as long as 70 years is painstaking work that could take many months.

"One of the biggest issues is trying to get a useful DNA sample," he told Canada AM Friday from Thunder Bay.

"We never know what the quality of the DNA will be. The outside appearance of the sample is irrelevant; it's about how robust the DNA is within that sample."

Hildebrandt says Gillespie will need to find artifacts that Earhart may have actually touched.

"When he heads back, he's going to be looking for any type of item that she may have come in contact with while on the island, something she might have used while trying to survive there and possibly some physical remains from her person."

Gillespie says that Warnex typically works on forensic cases and cases such as paternity or immigration testing. "So working on a high-profile case like this is interesting and a change of pace," he said.

"The team at Warnex, we're excited to... try to bring closure to something that has been ongoing for some 70+ years now. To help finalize that process would be very, very cool."