An expedition that aims to solve the mystery of the fate of American aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart has shared updates on their progress online.
Researchers from Purdue University are currently on an expedition to the coral atoll of Nikumaroro, where they are looking for what could be Earhart’s lost airplane.
The "Taraia Object" was discovered in an Apple Maps image back in 2020, and it has been speculated that the image may capture the wreckage of Earhart’s Lockheed 10E Electra plane.
A team has set out to try to solve the mystery of what the satellite image shows.
In a video first shared live on the big screen at a Purdue Football team game and later shared to social media, Steve Schultz, Purdue general counsel and field assistant, said a team is en route to Nikumaroro "to see if we can discover whether a visual anomaly in the lagoon of that island is what remains of Amelia Earhart’s Lockheed 10E Electra, which was lost in her attempt to fly around the world in 1937."
In the video clip, the team is in a boat approaching the island. Further footage shows the boat sailing in the South Pacific.
The team said that it will continue to share updates as the expedition continues.
Who Was Amelia Earhart?
Earhart was an American aviator and aviation pioneer who became one of the first female passengers to cross the Atlantic by plane in 1928. In 1932, she became the first woman to make a nonstop solo trans-Atlantic flight.
She disappeared over the Pacific Ocean in 1937 during her attempt to become the first female pilot to fly around the world.
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What Was Amelia Earhart’s Connection to Purdue University?
When she disappeared, Earhart worked at the university as a women’s career counselor and as an adviser to Purdue’s Aeronautics Department.
Purdue University and the Archaeological Legacy Institute are funding the Taraia Object Expedition.
Schultz said in a press release that "Amelia’s legacy remains strong at Purdue, and she looms large in our canon of heroes."
"Successfully identifying the Electra would be the first step toward fulfilling her intention to return it to the university," he said.
What We Know About the Expedition So Far
The expedition to Nikumaroro, part of the island nation of Kiribati, set off from Tarawa on October 7. It will involve nearly three weeks of travel and research, Purdue confirmed.
The search was first announced in July of 2025—88 years to the day that Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan disappeared. It was later delayed because of the onset of the South Pacific cyclone season, which prevented a safe departure in 2025.
The expedition team is expected to arrive back in Tarawa around October 22.
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Richard Pettigrew, who is leading the expedition team, said in a press release: "With just a week to go before the launch of our expedition, my conscious focus is on the execution of our fieldwork plan."
The expedition to Nikumaroro is intended to establish what the object in the Apple Maps image actually is, using underwater surveying and archaeological techniques to examine the anomaly more closely.
If the Taraia Object proves to be the Electra, though, the mission won’t stop there.
Further expeditions will be needed for it to be recovered.
"This case has taken a long time," Pettigrew previously told Newsweek in an exclusive interview. "But we have some new evidence. There’s an object visible in the Nikumaroro lagoon. Everything that we see indicates it’s very possible, perhaps even likely, that this is what remains of Amelia Earhart’s aircraft."
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Ben Kelly and Tony Phillips.