Researchers are heading to a remote Pacific atoll, where they suspect the famed aviator Amelia Earhart crash-landed in 1937. This expedition is the latest attempt to solve one of the biggest mysteries of the 20th century.
Expedition Overview
The 17-person expedition was inspired by satellite images taken over several years, which show a submerged object in the uninhabited island’s sandy lagoon. However, this evidence has been dismissed by other longtime Earhart sleuths, who believe it is likely a fallen tree. The research team, led by archaeologists who secured funding from Purdue University, aims to uncover what they hope is the wreckage of Earhart’s Lockheed Model 10-E Electra.
Key Statements
“Finding Amelia Earhart’s Electra aircraft would be the discovery of a lifetime,” said the expedition’s leader, Richard Pettigrew, before setting sail this month. He added, “Confirming the plane wreckage there would be the smoking-gun proof.”
Background on Earhart's Disappearance
Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan vanished during their attempt to circumnavigate the globe at the equator. By that time, Earhart, aged 39, was already a celebrity and aviation pioneer, having broken several records, including being the first woman to make a nonstop solo transatlantic flight.
Locating the wreck of the twin-engine plane would support a long-held, but unproven, hypothesis that Earhart and Noonan ditched at the atoll of Nikumaroro, part of the archipelago country of Kiribati, situated about halfway between Australia and Hawaii. They were en route to Howland Island, approximately 400 miles north of Nikumaroro, when their plane ran low on fuel and disappeared.
