Expedition to remote Pacific island aims to test Amelia Earhart wreck theory
A remote Pacific island may soon answer a question that has lingered for nearly nine decades. A new expedition set for this fall will search
A remote Pacific island may soon answer a question that has lingered for nearly nine decades. A new expedition set for this fall will search Nikumaroro, where some researchers believe Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan may have landed after their 1937 disappearance.
The trip is being watched closely because it centers on a satellite image anomaly nicknamed the “Taraia object,” spotted in a lagoon on the island between Australia and Hawaii. Lead archaeologist Richard Pettigrew said he feels unusually sure about the mission. “I am feeling very confident about this,” he told USA TODAY. “I’m pumped.”
A mystery that refuses to fade
Earhart and Noonan vanished on July 2, 1937, on the second-to-last leg of her attempt to fly around the world. The U.S. government’s official report said they ran out of fuel and crashed into the Pacific short of Howland Island. But the absence of confirmed wreckage has kept other theories alive.
That vacuum has fueled expensive searches across the ocean floor, remote islands and satellite images. It has also turned the case into something bigger than aviation history. For many, Earhart still stands for unfinished business.
The latest effort follows a yearlong delay and comes after repeated expeditions have come and gone with little to show for them. Earhart’s disappearance continues to draw fresh attention, even as earlier claims of discovery were often debunked or quietly shelved.
Why Nikumaroro again
Nikumaroro sits far from major shipping lanes, which is part of what keeps the theory alive. Supporters believe Earhart’s plane may have ended up there after the crew failed to reach their destination. The new expedition is meant to investigate whether the lagoon object could be connected to her Lockheed Electra 10E.
Purdue University and the Purdue Research Foundation are involved in the joint effort with the Archaeological Legacy Institute. Purdue has said some members of the team plan to depart from the Amelia Earhart Terminal at Purdue University Airport on Oct. 30 and meet others in Majuro in the Marshall Islands before heading into the South Pacific.
The project has also benefited from a fresh wave of public interest. In September, President Donald Trump said he would order his administration to declassify secret government records related to Earhart’s disappearance, adding another layer to a mystery that has endured longer than many modern aviation records.
For now, the hope rests on one strange shape in a lagoon, a few weeks of travel and a team willing to test a theory that has outlasted generations of investigators. “Something is there,” Pettigrew said.
