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Researcher Speaks Out as Search for Amelia Earhart, Lost Plane Narrows
Researchers are investigating a submerged shape they say could be Earhart's plane, using drones, sonar and dredging to test a nearly 90-year mystery.
- On Tuesday, October 13, 2026, a 17-person team from Purdue University and the Archaeological Legacy Institute arrived at Nikumaroro, Kiribati, to investigate the "Taraia Object," a submerged anomaly believed to potentially be Amelia Earhart's missing Lockheed Electra.
- Pioneer aviator Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared July 2, 1937, during their round-the-world flight attempt; while the U.S. government maintains they crashed near Howland Island, proponents of the "castaway hypothesis" argue the pair landed on Nikumaroro.
- Employing drone photography, magnetometers, and sonar, expedition leader Richard Pettigrew stated, "We will start our remote sensing work" before potentially using hydraulic dredges to expose metallic aircraft remains for the $900,000 mission.
- Any potential recovery of wreckage requires formal permission from Kiribati authorities; if authenticated, the find could settle aviation's longest-running mystery, which Purdue official Steve Schultz called "one of the great mysteries of the 20th century."
- High-Profile searches in 2019 and 2024 yielded no results, and skeptics including researcher Ric Gillespie dismiss the anomaly as a "fallen pandanus tree" rather than aircraft debris, underscoring evidentiary standards for verification.
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The mystery of the missing plane of the famous American aviator Amelia Earhart, which disappeared over the Pacific in 1937, could be solved.
·Montreal, Canada
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Spectrum News 13+2 Reposted by 2 other sources
Researchers search for Amelia Earhart's plane in lagoon on remote Pacific island
The last authorized expedition to the island was seven years ago.
·Orlando, United States
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Coverage Details
Total News Sources200
Leaning Left44Leaning Right21Center63Last UpdatedBias Distribution49% Center
Bias Distribution
- 49% of the sources are Center
49% Center
L 34%
C 49%
R 17%
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