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Daily Mail
03-07-2025
- Science
- Daily Mail
Fresh clues in mystery of Amelia Earhart point to plane crash near small island: 'Very strong evidence'
It is a mystery that has captivated the world for 88 years, and now scientists believe they have finally found Amelia Earhart's doomed plane. Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan vanished while attempting to fly around the world on July 2, 1937, sparking decades of failed searches and countless theories. A team from Purdue University claims they have located the Lockheed Model 10-E Electra plane off the coast of a small, remote and inhospitable island lagoon of Nikumaroro in Kiribati, nearly 1,000 miles from Fiji. Their theory is based on satellite imagery showing an unusual object on the ocean floor just feet from the shoreline, combined with artifacts, historical records, human remains and eyewitness testimony. Researchers said the size and composition of the object are an almost exact match for Earhart's plane, and they are planning an expedition to the island this November to investigate further. Nikumaroro also sits near Earhart's intended flight path, and almost exactly where four of her distress calls were traced, providing even more compelling evidence Richard Pettigrew, executive director Archaeological Legacy Institute (ALI), which is joining the hunt, said: 'What we have here is maybe the greatest opportunity ever to finally close the case. 'With such a great amount of very strong evidence, we feel we have no choice but to move forward and hopefully return with proof.' Earhart took to the sky on June 1, 1937, hoping to become the first female aviator to fly around the world. She and Noonan departed from Oakland, California, flew to Miami, continued down to South America, crossed the Atlantic to Africa and then headed east through India and South Asia. A few weeks later, they left Lae in Papua New Guinea with plans to stop on Howland Island on July 2 to refuel. But somewhere over the Pacific, they lost radio contact and were never seen or heard from again. Their disappearance sparked one of the greatest aviation mysteries of all time, leading to countless theories, from crashing at sea to becoming castaways on a remote island, or even being captured by the Japanese. Now, researchers believe they may finally have a lead, an underwater anomaly known as the Taraia Object, and they are building a compelling case. Among the strongest pieces of evidence are radio bearings from Earhart's distress transmissions, recorded by the US Navy, Coast Guard, and Pan American World Airways, which all converge near Nikumaroro. A 2017 forensic analysis of human bones discovered on the island in 1940 found that the dimensions matched Earhart's bone lengths more closely than 99 percent of the population, strongly suggesting they may have belonged to her. Researchers have also cited period-specific artifacts found on the island, including a woman's shoe, a compact case, a jar of freckle cream, and a medicine vial, all dating to the 1930s. Another clue is the Bevington Object, a photographic anomaly captured just three months after Earhart's disappearance that appears to show part of the Electra's landing gear on the Nikumaroro reef. The most recent clue fueling the theory is a 2020 satellite image of the object, showing it has remained in the same spot in the island's lagoon since at least 1938. ALI joined the hunt that same year after a private citizen, Michael Ashmore, noticed the object while studying 2015 Apple Maps imagery of the island. That discovery prompted the team to gather 26 additional satellite images from 2009 to 2021, along with three more from Google Earth covering 2022 through 2024. 'This object in the satellite images is exactly the right size to represent the fuselage and tail of the Electra,' ALI said in a statement. 'It also appears to be very reflective and is likely to be metallic.' The new mission, named the Taraia Object Expedition, will be carried out in three phases over several years. The first phase involves an on-site examination of Nikumaroro, the second will include a full-scale archaeological excavation and the final phase aims to recover the suspected aircraft remains. 'We believe that the result of this Phase-1 field examination will probably be the confirmation that the Taraia Object is indeed the Lockheed Electra aircraft,' the team shared. 'This work, then, is likely to solve one of the greatest mysteries of the 20th century.' This expedition follows several past efforts to crack the case, including a high-profile mission in 2019 by famed ocean explorer Robert Ballard, supported by National Geographic. Ballard conducted a systematic search of the deep waters around Nikumaroro but found no trace of the aircraft. However, current researchers said that outcomes do not rule out their theory. 'The plane ending up in the deep water is not actually a likely scenario, given what we know about the prevailing winds and currents along the northwestern edge of the island,' they explained. In 2017, the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) also investigated the island, deploying search dogs that detected the scent of human remains. But once again, no physical evidence was recovered. Earhart's connection to Purdue University adds another dimension to the search. Before the flight, she was hired by the university to advise women on career opportunities. 'About nine decades ago, Amelia Earhart was recruited to Purdue,' said current Purdue president Mung Chiang. 'The university president later worked with her to prepare an aircraft for her historic flight around the world.' Earhart was born in Atchison, Kansas on July 24, 1897. Her father was a railroad lawyer, but later suffered from alcoholism and the family often struggled for money. They moved often, but Earhart completed high school and then started at the Ogontz School in Pennsylvania. She left junior college early to become a nurse's aide in Toronto after visiting her sister in Canada and deciding to care for soldiers wounded in World War I. After the war, she started a premed program at Columbia but quit when her parents insisted she move back home to live with them in California. That was where she took her first flight in 1920, as a passenger with veteran flyer Frank Hawks. She was immediately entranced, saying: 'As soon as I left the ground, I knew I had to fly.' She started lessons - paying for them through her work as a telephone company clerk, and then bought her first plane in 1921, a Kinner Airster. Earhart set her first record just two years after she flew for the first time and before she even had her official pilot's license. In 1922, she became the first woman to fly at 14,000 feet. Then, in 1928, promoters started looking for a woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean and chose Earhart. As a passenger on Wilmer Stultz and Louis Gordon's plane, she flew from Newfoundland to Wales and became a celebrity overnight. She wrote a book about the adventure and went on a lecture tour across the US. Then in 1932, flying her red Lockheed Vega 5B, she became the first woman - and second person ever - to fly solo nonstop across the Atlantic. The flight took 15 hours and she battled tiredness, cold and mechanical issues that nearly ended her flight in disaster as she plummeted 3,000ft on her descent and was forced to carry out an emergency landing in Northern Ireland. It did not put her off, and later that year she became the first woman to fly solo nonstop across America in 19 hours and 5 minutes.
The Guardian
02-07-2025
- Science
- The Guardian
US researchers launch new mission to solve mystery of Amelia Earhart's fate
A new mission to locate Amelia Earhart's long-missing plane is being launched, researchers announced on Wednesday, following fresh clues that suggest she may have crash-landed on a remote island in the South Pacific. A satellite image may show part of Earhart's Lockheed Electra 10E protruding from the sand on Nikumaroro, an isolated island in Kiribati about 1,000 miles from Fiji, according to Richard Pettigrew, head of the Archaeological Legacy Institute, a non-profit based in Oregon. 'What we have here is maybe the greatest opportunity ever to finally close the case,' Pettigrew said in a news release. 'With such a great amount of very strong evidence, we feel we have no choice but to move forward and hopefully return with proof.' Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan vanished on 2 July 1937, exactly 88 years ago, during their attempt to circumnavigate the globe, leaving behind one of history's most puzzling aviation mysteries. Now, Purdue University, where Earhart once taught and which contributed funding for her flight, is organizing a team to travel to Nikumaroro this November. The group hopes to uncover and recover remains of the aircraft. 'We believe we owe it to Amelia and her legacy at Purdue to fulfill her wishes, if possible, to bring the Electra back to Purdue,' Steve Schultz, the university's general counsel, told NBC News. Pettigrew believes the object spotted in the satellite photo aligns in size and material with Earhart's aircraft. He also noted its position is near her intended route and close to where four of her emergency radio transmissions are thought to have originated. The image was taken in 2015, a year after a powerful cyclone may have exposed the site by shifting sand, Pettigrew said. He later presented the findings to Purdue. Additional signs suggesting Earhart's presence on the island include American-made tools and a small medicine bottle, Pettigrew added. Back in 2017, four specially trained dogs and archaeologists from the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (Tighar) also explored Nikumaroro. Still, not everyone is convinced. Ric Gillespie, Tighar's executive director, has led 12 previous expeditions to the island and believes Earhart probably landed and died there. However, he doubts the satellite image shows a plane. Instead, he told NBC he thinks the object could be a coconut palm tree and root ball pushed ashore during a storm. Schultz said Earhart had intended to return the plane to Purdue after the journey so it could be studied by future aviation students. The Purdue Research Foundation has approved $500,000 in funding for the first phase of the trip. The team will take six days to reach Nikumaroro by boat and will have five days on the island to search for the object and attempt to identify it as the missing plane.
The Guardian
02-07-2025
- Science
- The Guardian
US researchers launch new mission to solve mystery of Amelia Earhart's fate
A new mission to locate Amelia Earhart's long-missing plane is being launched, researchers announced on Wednesday, following fresh clues that suggest she may have crash-landed on a remote island in the South Pacific. A satellite image may show part of Earhart's Lockheed Electra 10E protruding from the sand on Nikumaroro, an isolated island in Kiribati about 1,000 miles from Fiji, according to Richard Pettigrew, head of the Archaeological Legacy Institute, a nonprofit based in Oregon. 'What we have here is maybe the greatest opportunity ever to finally close the case,' Pettigrew said in a news release. 'With such a great amount of very strong evidence, we feel we have no choice but to move forward and hopefully return with proof.' Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan vanished on 2 July 1937, exactly 88 years ago, during their attempt to circumnavigate the globe, leaving behind one of history's most puzzling aviation mysteries. Now, Purdue University, where Earhart once taught and which contributed funding for her flight, is organizing a team to travel to Nikumaroro this November. The group hopes to uncover and recover remains of the aircraft. 'We believe we owe it to Amelia and her legacy at Purdue to fulfill her wishes, if possible, to bring the Electra back to Purdue,' Steve Schultz, the university's general counsel, told NBC News. Pettigrew believes the object spotted in the satellite photo aligns in size and material with Earhart's aircraft. He also noted its position is near her intended route and close to where four of her emergency radio transmissions are thought to have originated. The image was taken in 2015, a year after a powerful cyclone may have exposed the site by shifting sand, Pettigrew said. He later presented the findings to Purdue. Additional signs suggesting Earhart's presence on the island include American-made tools and a small medicine bottle, Pettigrew added. Back in 2017, four specially trained dogs and archaeologists from the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (Tighar) also explored Nikumaroro. Still, not everyone is convinced. Ric Gillespie, Tighar's executive director, has led 12 previous expeditions to the island and believes Earhart likely landed and died there. However, he doubts the satellite image shows a plane. Instead, he told NBC he thinks the object could be a coconut palm tree and root ball pushed ashore during a storm. Schultz said Earhart had intended to return the plane to Purdue after the journey so it could be studied by future aviation students. The Purdue Research Foundation has approved $500,000 in funding for the first phase of the trip. The team will take six days to reach Nikumaroro by boat and will have five days on the island to search for the object and attempt to identify it as the missing plane.
Yahoo
02-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
What Happened to Amelia Earhart? Inside the Decades-Long Search for the Truth Behind Her Mysterious Disappearance 88 Years Later
Amelia Earheart was the first woman to fly alone across the Atlantic Ocean and had aspirations to be the first to fly around the world However, she never finished her journey after her plane failed to land in the Pacific island where it was set to refuel No one has found Earheart's body or the remains of her plane since it disappeared, leaving mystery around the event nearly 90 years laterAmelia Earhart left a timeless legacy in life and in death. After falling in love with aviation at a young age, Earhart went on to receive numerous accolades for her piloting feats across the United States in the years to follow. It was in 1932, however, that she made trailblazing history and became the first woman to fly alone across the Atlantic. Soon after, Earhart swiftly set her eyes on her next big adventure, and, in 1937, she set out to become the first woman to fly around the world. Embarking on the trip alongside her navigator, Fred Noonan, Earhart started the difficult journey in June that year. However, while circumstances were smooth-sailing at the start, things quickly took a somber turn on July 2, 1937. After a number of technical difficulties, including a malfunctioning radio system, Earhart and Noonan never made their landing on an island where they were expected to refuel their aircraft and disappeared near the pitstop. 'It's one of the greatest mysteries of the 20th century,' Dorothy Cochrane, curator of general aviation at the National Air and Space Museum in the Smithsonian Institute, explained in a 2007 editorial for the museum's magazine. She continued, 'She was the best-known American woman pilot in the world and she just disappeared off the face of the Earth." So what happened to Amelia Earhart? Here's everything to know about the legendary aviator's last flight and what has been unearthed since. Earhart began her famed voyage around the world on June 1, 1937, with Noonan by her side. The pair boarded a twin-engine Lockheed Electra and began their publicized journey by departing from Miami. Following a few refueling stops eastward, they landed in Lae, New Guinea, almost a month later on June 29, having completed 22,000 miles out of their anticipated 29,000-mile journey. On July 2, they recommenced their journey and headed toward Howland Island, a tiny destination in the Pacific Ocean, to refuel. Earhart and Noonan were expected to fly around 2,600 miles to reach the spot, subsequently arriving the morning of the next day, however, it was notoriously difficult to locate, according to Britannica. In an attempt to ease their navigation, a U.S. Coast Guard cutter named Itasca was stationed near Howland and was in radio contact with Earhart. While her calls with the Itasca began as routine reports, Earhart's status updates gradually became more of a cause for concern as she pointed out unfavorable weather conditions like cloudy skies, and more pressingly, that the plane was running out of fuel. To complicate matters, the signal between Earhart's plane and the Itasca was troubled, and the last transmission the cutter received from Earhart heard her saying, 'We are running north and south,' while also indicating what compass coordinates they were flying by. However, the plane never arrived, and an extensive search operation — the biggest by the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard in American history up to that point — looking for Earhart and Noonan ensued. Around two weeks later, on July 19, the search efforts were called off, and the pair were declared lost at sea. A year and a half after the search operations, Noonan and Earhart were both declared dead in absentia on Jan. 5, 1939. The term indicates that someone is legally declared deceased, despite the lack of direct proof of their death. Following an investigation into the aircraft's disappearance, the U.S. government concluded that Earhart's plane ran out of fuel and crashed into the Pacific Ocean, per Britannica. This is also the prevailing theory in general by experts and researchers on what happened to Earhart, despite her plane never being found and the circumstances of what happened after the crash remaining unclear. Tom Crouch, the senior curator of aeronautics at the National Air and Space Museum, said in the 2007 editorial that it's likely that Earhart's plane is resting at the bottom of the ocean with some of her belongings, like her leather jacket, surviving the environment. 'The notion of seeing images of Amelia's leather jacket 18,000 feet down [disturbs] me,' Crouch said. He noted that the Titanic, which came to rest at 13,000 feet in the Atlantic Ocean, had a host of artifacts that remained relatively intact, meaning that along with her jacket, Earhart's shoes and teeth have also likely survived as well. 'I want to know where she is, but there's something uncomfortable about finding out,' Crouch added. 'I'm convinced that the mystery is part of what keeps us interested. In part, we remember her because she's our favorite missing person.' In light of the mystery shrouding Earhart's disappearance, several other theories besides fuel depletion have emerged in hopes of finding an answer. One theory, according to Britannica, suggests that Earhart and Noonan were taken captive by Japanese forces after encroaching upon Japanese-occupied islands. Another more popular theory assumes that Earhart and Noonan continued flying south after not finding Howland and crash-landed on Gardner Island, now known as Nikumaroro Island, in the western Pacific Ocean. The hypothesis has been largely supported by the findings of Richard Jantz, an anthropology researcher, per the BBC. In 2018, he re-examined seven bone measurements, initially studied in 1940 by physician DW Hoodless, and found that they were more similar to Earhart's than 99% of individuals from a large reference sample. However, no direct link between Earhart, like her plane or a perfectly matched DNA sample, has ever been found on Nikumaroro. Over the years, several expeditions trying to find Earhart's plane have ultimately failed. Although these search efforts date back to 1937, a more recent inquiry into Earhart's plane occurred in 2024. Deep Sea Vision, a company that specializes in unmanned underwater vehicles, released a sonar image in January 2024 of what they said appeared to be Earhart's Lockheed Electra aircraft, according to CBS. The researchers surveyed over 5,200 square miles of the Pacific's ocean floor to capture the image, but several months later, they found that the potential aircraft was actually a rock formation. Earhart left as much of a legacy on land as she did in the sky. A champion of women's rights, Earhart was a member of the National Woman's Party and was one of the earliest supporters of the Equal Rights Amendment. In 1929, she helped establish the Ninety-Nines, an organization for female pilots, and became their first president. During a 2012 State Department event honoring Earhart's legacy, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton touched upon her continued impact in inspiring people to pursue their wildest dreams, regardless of gender. 'There was this woman, Amelia Earhart, who, when it was really hard, decided she was going to break all kinds of limits — social limits, gravity limits, distance limits,' Clinton said at the time. 'Nobody was there to tell Amelia Earhart she couldn't do what she chose to do." 'She gave people hope and she inspired them to dream bigger and bolder,' Clinton continued. 'When she took off on that historic journey, she carried the aspirations of our entire country with her.' Read the original article on People
Yahoo
02-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
What Happened to Amelia Earhart? Inside the Decades-Long Search for the Truth Behind Her Mysterious Disappearance 88 Years Later
Amelia Earheart was the first woman to fly alone across the Atlantic Ocean and had aspirations to be the first to fly around the world However, she never finished her journey after her plane failed to land in the Pacific island where it was set to refuel No one has found Earheart's body or the remains of her plane since it disappeared, leaving mystery around the event nearly 90 years laterAmelia Earhart left a timeless legacy in life and in death. After falling in love with aviation at a young age, Earhart went on to receive numerous accolades for her piloting feats across the United States in the years to follow. It was in 1932, however, that she made trailblazing history and became the first woman to fly alone across the Atlantic. Soon after, Earhart swiftly set her eyes on her next big adventure, and, in 1937, she set out to become the first woman to fly around the world. Embarking on the trip alongside her navigator, Fred Noonan, Earhart started the difficult journey in June that year. However, while circumstances were smooth-sailing at the start, things quickly took a somber turn on July 2, 1937. After a number of technical difficulties, including a malfunctioning radio system, Earhart and Noonan never made their landing on an island where they were expected to refuel their aircraft and disappeared near the pitstop. 'It's one of the greatest mysteries of the 20th century,' Dorothy Cochrane, curator of general aviation at the National Air and Space Museum in the Smithsonian Institute, explained in a 2007 editorial for the museum's magazine. She continued, 'She was the best-known American woman pilot in the world and she just disappeared off the face of the Earth." So what happened to Amelia Earhart? Here's everything to know about the legendary aviator's last flight and what has been unearthed since. Earhart began her famed voyage around the world on June 1, 1937, with Noonan by her side. The pair boarded a twin-engine Lockheed Electra and began their publicized journey by departing from Miami. Following a few refueling stops eastward, they landed in Lae, New Guinea, almost a month later on June 29, having completed 22,000 miles out of their anticipated 29,000-mile journey. On July 2, they recommenced their journey and headed toward Howland Island, a tiny destination in the Pacific Ocean, to refuel. Earhart and Noonan were expected to fly around 2,600 miles to reach the spot, subsequently arriving the morning of the next day, however, it was notoriously difficult to locate, according to Britannica. In an attempt to ease their navigation, a U.S. Coast Guard cutter named Itasca was stationed near Howland and was in radio contact with Earhart. While her calls with the Itasca began as routine reports, Earhart's status updates gradually became more of a cause for concern as she pointed out unfavorable weather conditions like cloudy skies, and more pressingly, that the plane was running out of fuel. To complicate matters, the signal between Earhart's plane and the Itasca was troubled, and the last transmission the cutter received from Earhart heard her saying, 'We are running north and south,' while also indicating what compass coordinates they were flying by. However, the plane never arrived, and an extensive search operation — the biggest by the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard in American history up to that point — looking for Earhart and Noonan ensued. Around two weeks later, on July 19, the search efforts were called off, and the pair were declared lost at sea. A year and a half after the search operations, Noonan and Earhart were both declared dead in absentia on Jan. 5, 1939. The term indicates that someone is legally declared deceased, despite the lack of direct proof of their death. Following an investigation into the aircraft's disappearance, the U.S. government concluded that Earhart's plane ran out of fuel and crashed into the Pacific Ocean, per Britannica. This is also the prevailing theory in general by experts and researchers on what happened to Earhart, despite her plane never being found and the circumstances of what happened after the crash remaining unclear. Tom Crouch, the senior curator of aeronautics at the National Air and Space Museum, said in the 2007 editorial that it's likely that Earhart's plane is resting at the bottom of the ocean with some of her belongings, like her leather jacket, surviving the environment. 'The notion of seeing images of Amelia's leather jacket 18,000 feet down [disturbs] me,' Crouch said. He noted that the Titanic, which came to rest at 13,000 feet in the Atlantic Ocean, had a host of artifacts that remained relatively intact, meaning that along with her jacket, Earhart's shoes and teeth have also likely survived as well. 'I want to know where she is, but there's something uncomfortable about finding out,' Crouch added. 'I'm convinced that the mystery is part of what keeps us interested. In part, we remember her because she's our favorite missing person.' In light of the mystery shrouding Earhart's disappearance, several other theories besides fuel depletion have emerged in hopes of finding an answer. One theory, according to Britannica, suggests that Earhart and Noonan were taken captive by Japanese forces after encroaching upon Japanese-occupied islands. Another more popular theory assumes that Earhart and Noonan continued flying south after not finding Howland and crash-landed on Gardner Island, now known as Nikumaroro Island, in the western Pacific Ocean. The hypothesis has been largely supported by the findings of Richard Jantz, an anthropology researcher, per the BBC. In 2018, he re-examined seven bone measurements, initially studied in 1940 by physician DW Hoodless, and found that they were more similar to Earhart's than 99% of individuals from a large reference sample. However, no direct link between Earhart, like her plane or a perfectly matched DNA sample, has ever been found on Nikumaroro. Over the years, several expeditions trying to find Earhart's plane have ultimately failed. Although these search efforts date back to 1937, a more recent inquiry into Earhart's plane occurred in 2024. Deep Sea Vision, a company that specializes in unmanned underwater vehicles, released a sonar image in January 2024 of what they said appeared to be Earhart's Lockheed Electra aircraft, according to CBS. The researchers surveyed over 5,200 square miles of the Pacific's ocean floor to capture the image, but several months later, they found that the potential aircraft was actually a rock formation. Earhart left as much of a legacy on land as she did in the sky. A champion of women's rights, Earhart was a member of the National Woman's Party and was one of the earliest supporters of the Equal Rights Amendment. In 1929, she helped establish the Ninety-Nines, an organization for female pilots, and became their first president. During a 2012 State Department event honoring Earhart's legacy, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton touched upon her continued impact in inspiring people to pursue their wildest dreams, regardless of gender. 'There was this woman, Amelia Earhart, who, when it was really hard, decided she was going to break all kinds of limits — social limits, gravity limits, distance limits,' Clinton said at the time. 'Nobody was there to tell Amelia Earhart she couldn't do what she chose to do." 'She gave people hope and she inspired them to dream bigger and bolder,' Clinton continued. 'When she took off on that historic journey, she carried the aspirations of our entire country with her.' Read the original article on People
