A group of American researchers believes that within just a few days it may find what remains of legendary aviator Amelia Earhart’s missing aircraft near a remote island in the southern Pacific Ocean. CBS News reports, writes UNN.
Details
The expedition team, led by Steve Schultz of Purdue University and Richard Pettigrew of the Institute for Archaeological Heritage, has begun a thorough search for the Lockheed Electra 10-E aircraft that Earhart may have been flying.
Expedition members are surveying the lagoon off the coast of Nikumaroro Island. They are focusing primarily on an object known as the "Taraia object." It is a visual anomaly that could be seen in aerial photographs as early as 1938, but was first noticed in satellite images in 2020. These satellite images prompted the organization of a new expedition.
Researchers say they may solve the mystery of Amelia Earhart’s missing aircraft within a few days.
Photo: American researchers search for Amelia Earhart’s aircraft on Nikumaroro Island in October 2026. Purdue University.
The search area is so far from civilization that it took the expedition’s 17 members five days at sea to reach it.
Despite this, the team is confident that within a few days it will be able to say whether it has managed to find Earhart’s aircraft.
For reference
Earhart disappeared on July 2, 1937, while attempting to become the first person to fly around the Earth along the equator. Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, disappeared after covering 22,000 miles during their expedition.
Nikumaroro is part of the archipelago of the state of Kiribati, located approximately halfway between Australia and Hawaii. The island lies about 400 miles southeast of Howland Island, which, according to the researchers, was the final point on Earhart and Noonan’s route around the equator.