I would really love to have this one solved. Hope he does it.
Finding the plane is the easy part, the hard part will be finding the crews remains. The Japs bombed the airstrip and buildings killing a few American civilians at the start of WW2, which lead to the theory the Japs found the crew and they died in captivity. Hostilities between Japan and the US were forming in 1937 due to the US sanctions put on them…plausible.
Howland Island is US territory, and has an interesting history.