Explorers Claim Discovery of Amelia Earhart’s Missing Aircraft

A team of underwater archaeologists and marine robotics experts from Deep Sea Vision, an ocean exploration company based in Charleston, South Carolina, may have discovered a clue that could help solve the mystery of Amelia Earhart’s disappearance. Utilizing sonar imaging, the team identified an anomaly in the Pacific Ocean, more than 16,000 feet (4,877 meters) underwater, resembling a small aircraft. They believe this anomaly could be the Lockheed 10-E Electra, the plane Earhart was piloting when she vanished while attempting to circumnavigate the globe.

The discovery was announced by Deep Sea Vision through an Instagram post on January 27. The imaging was captured about 100 miles away from Howland Island, the next anticipated landing spot for Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan after taking off from Lae, Papua New Guinea. The duo was declared lost at sea following a 16-day search conducted by the US government.

Deep Sea Vision conducted an extensive survey of over 5,200 square miles (13,468 square kilometers) of the ocean floor using an advanced autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) called Hugin 6000, equipped with sonar technology. The team began their expedition in September 2023 and concluded it in December.

Tony Romeo, CEO of Deep Sea Vision and a pilot and former US Air Force intelligence officer, expressed the hope of returning to the site within the year for further confirmation of the anomaly. This might involve using a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) with a camera to closely investigate the object and explore the possibility of bringing it to the surface.

However, caution is exercised in confirming the discovery as Earhart’s plane. Andrew Pietruszka, an underwater archaeologist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, emphasized the need for further investigation to determine if the anomaly is a plane and, more specifically, if it is Amelia Earhart’s Lockheed Electra.

Various theories surrounding Earhart’s disappearance have been proposed over the years. A 2017 History Channel documentary suggested that Earhart crashed in the Marshall Islands, while the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) theorized in 2016 that Earhart and Noonan survived a rough landing but later died as castaways on Nikumaroro, Kiribati.

The sonar image’s proximity to Howland Island makes it of particular interest, as Earhart’s last communications indicated her nearing the island before her disappearance. However, the discovered object lacks certain features of Earhart’s Lockheed Electra, such as the twin engines, according to David Jourdan, the co-founder and president of Nauticos, a deep ocean exploration company.

Jourdan emphasized the challenges of identifying objects solely from sonar images, citing potential alterations in shape due to damage and the unpredictable nature of sound. Confirming the object’s identity as Earhart’s plane would require returning to the site for further investigation and attempting to locate the certification “NR16020” printed on the aircraft’s wing.

Despite the challenges and uncertainties, the potential discovery has reignited interest in solving the enduring mystery of Amelia Earhart’s disappearance. Dorothy Cochrane, a curator for general aviation at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, described Earhart as the “rock star of the era” and highlighted the universal desire for answers to the 20th-century mystery that persists into the 21st century.