Amelia Earhart’s lost plane could be on the verge of being discovered

Nearly 90 years after Amelia Earhart vanished, researchers are finally heading for one of the most remote corners of the Pacific in the hope of finding something that has eluded investigators for generations: physical evidence of what happened to the pioneering aviator and her missing aircraft.

The team has now set sail for Nikumaroro, a tiny atoll in the island nation of Kiribati, where it plans to investigate a mysterious object beneath the water. The journey alone is a major undertaking, with researchers facing around 830 nautical miles at sea before they can begin examining the suspected wreckage.

Six days at sea to investigate a possible wreck

The expedition left Tarawa, Kiribati’s capital, on Wednesday, October 7, aboard the Marin Mainiku, a vessel operated by the Kiribati National Shipping Line. The ship was reported to be roughly halfway through the voyage on October 9, travelling at an average speed of around seven knots. The team was expected to reach Nikumaroro around October 12 or 13, depending on the progress of the crossing. 

Seventeen people are involved in the expedition, which brings together the Archaeological Legacy Institute, the Purdue Research Foundation and Purdue University, alongside representatives from Kiribati.

The university has a personal connection to Earhart. She worked at Purdue as a career counsellor and received funding from the institution to help purchase the Lockheed Electra 10-E used for her attempted round-the-world flight. Steve Schultz, Purdue’s senior vice president and general counsel, is among those taking part. The university has described the journey as a logistical challenge involving the transport of specialist equipment and the coordination of a team travelling halfway around the world.

What will researchers look for underwater?

The focus of the expedition is an unusual feature in Nikumaroro’s lagoon known as the Taraia Object. It was spotted in satellite imagery in 2020 and subsequently identified in aerial photographs dating back to 1938. Researchers believe its shape could be consistent with an aircraft, raising the possibility that it might be part of Earhart’s missing Lockheed Electra. However, that remains a theory, not a confirmed identification.

Once on the island, the team plans to photograph and film the area before using sonar and magnetometers to investigate what lies beneath the water. The researchers intend to assess the object and, if possible, bring it up for closer examination. Any recovery of potential aircraft wreckage would require further permission from the authorities in Kiribati. 

The expedition is expected to spend several days working at the site. Its findings could help establish whether the object is genuinely worth investigating further or whether it has been mistaken for something else. For more background on the Taraia Object and the original expedition plans, see our earlier article: Amelia Earhart’s missing plane potentially found.

Not everyone believes it is Earhart’s plane

The idea that Earhart reached Nikumaroro after disappearing in 1937 is not universally accepted. Some researchers have suggested that she and her navigator, Fred Noonan, may have landed on the island after failing to reach their intended destination. Others remain sceptical of the Taraia Object itself. Ric Gillespie, executive director of the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, has questioned whether the shape is aircraft wreckage, suggesting it could instead be a fallen tree.

That disagreement makes the underwater investigation particularly important. Satellite images can suggest what an object might be, but only a closer examination can establish what it actually is. Earhart and Noonan disappeared while attempting to fly around the world. Despite decades of searches and numerous theories, their fate has never been conclusively established.

For more on the documents released about Earhart’s disappearance, see our earlier article: U.S. spy agency releases Amelia Earhart files: Access here. For now, the expedition is still making its way across the Pacific. The team has yet to examine the object, and there is no confirmation that it is connected to Earhart. But after years of speculation, researchers are preparing to investigate the clue at first hand.