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New York Post
02-07-2025
- Science
- New York Post
Purdue-backed team to search for Amelia Earhart's lost plane in remote Pacific island
Purdue University researchers are sending a new expedition team to find Amelia Earhart's missing plane based on evidence that it may have crashed in a remote island in the South Pacific. The University, which had employed the iconic aviator and helped fund her historic flight 88 years ago, announced Wednesday it will team up with the Archaeological Legacy Institute (ALI) to send researchers to the Nikumaroro island in November to investigate the mysterious 'Taraia Object.' The object was first flagged in satellite photos following an intense tropical cyclone in 2015, with ALI believing it is the main body of Earhart's Lockheed 10-E Electra, which disappeared on July 2, 1937, during her ill-fated attempt to fly around the world. 6 Purdue University marked the 88th anniversary of Amelia Earhart's disappearance with a renewed effort to find her missing plane. Bettmann Archive 6 Researchers believe satellite images of the Nikumaroro Island following a powerful 2015 storm depicted images of Earhart's plane. 'What we have here is maybe the greatest opportunity ever to finally close the case,' ALI executive director Richard Pettigrew said in a statement. 'With such a great amount of very strong evidence, we feel we have no choice but to move forward and hopefully return with proof,' he added. 'I look forward to collaborating with Purdue Research Foundation in writing the final chapter in Amelia Earhart's remarkable life story.' Nikumaroro lies between Hawaii and Fiji near the center of the Pacific Ocean, Pettigrew has believed for years that the island hides the secret to Earhart's disappearance. Despite previous trips to the island, with turned up human remains in 2017, there is still no conclusive evidence that Earhart had landed there, and the Taraia Object has yet to be located since the shifting sands caused it to vanish. 6 Amelia Earhart was the first woman to fly across the Atlantic in a solo venture. AFP via Getty Images 6 The aviator was attempting to fly around the world when she disappeared in 1937 on her way to the Howland Island. Purdue, however, said it is committed to the search, which will embark from the Marshall Islands on Nov. 5 and allow researchers to spend five days on Nikumaroro to search for clues. If the initial expedition proves successful, the university said a larger excavation effort will be put in motion to retrieve the remains of the plane next year. 'Purdue Research Foundation began its commitment to Earhart's aeronautical explorations in 1935,' Purdue Research Foundation CEO Chad Pittman said. 6 Earhart was employed at Purdue university as a career counselor and aeronautical engineering adviser. CAMERA PRESS/ Retna Ltd. 'By embarking on this joint partnership with ALI, we hope to come full circle on our support of Earhart's innovative spirit, solve one of history's biggest mysteries, and inspire future generations of aviators, adventurers, innovators and Boilermakers.' Earhart, the first woman to fly over the Atlantic in a solo trip, began working at Purdue in 1935 as a career counselor for women and an adviser to its aeronautical engineering department. Then-University President Edward Elliott invited the aviator to the school to inspire female students to complete their educations and pursue careers, just as Earhart had done. 6 Richard Pettigrew, the executive director of the Archaeological Legacy Institute, will join the trip to Nikumaroro in November. Earhart remained with the school until her 1937 disappearance aboard the Electra, along with navigator Fred Noonan. The pair had set off from Lae, Papua New Guinea, with plans to refuel on Howland Island before continuing their journey to Honolulu and their final destination of Oakland, Calif, but faced a strong headwind in Lae when Earhart's radio transmissions eventually went silent. The US Navy and Coast Guard conducted a 16-day search for the missing duo without success, and Earhart was officially declared dead on Jan. 5, 1939.


CBS News
02-07-2025
- Science
- CBS News
New expedition will seek to locate Amelia Earhart's lost plane in the Pacific Ocean
An expedition to a remote and tiny island this fall will attempt to locate Amelia Earhart's plane in the Pacific Ocean. The effort, announced Wednesday by the Purdue Research Foundation and Archaeological Legacy Institute, will focus on a "visual anomaly" in satellite and other imagery in a lagoon at Nikumaroro, an island located between Hawaii and Australia. Nikumaroro was previously known as Gardner Island. A team will travel in November to inspect what is dubbed the Taraia Object to find out if it is Earhart's aircraft. "What we have here is maybe the greatest opportunity ever to finally close the case," Richard Pettigrew, the institute's executive director, 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." Amelia Earhart at a refueling stop in Khartoum, Sudan, with the Lockheed Electra 10E in which she was attempting a circumnavigational flight of the world, June 13, 1937. On a subsequent stage of the journey, Earhart and Noonan disappeared over the central Pacific Ocean near Howland Island and were later presumed dead. Getty Images Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared over the central Pacific 88 years ago on July 2. Flying a Lockheed 10-E Electra, Earhart was trying to become the first female aviator to circle the world when they vanished. Various theories have since emerged about their fate. One of them suggests Earhart landed instead of crashed, and was marooned on an island where she died. As the Purdue Research Foundation and Archaeological Legacy Institute note, this idea is called the Nikumaroro hypothesis. The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, a nonprofit organization based in Pennsylvania, has collected evidence it says supports the theory. A field team plans to travel from the Marshall Islands on Nov. 5 and spend five days inspecting the Taraia Object, the foundation and Archaeological Legacy Institute said in its news release. If the effort confirms the plane's identity, excavations will take place next year to try to return what remains of the aircraft. Earhart worked for Purdue University, and the Purdue Research Foundation helped fund her attempted flight around the world, the news release said. "Both Earhart and her husband and manager, George Putnam, expressed their intention to return the Electra to Purdue after her historic flight," Steven Schultz, senior vice president and general counsel of Purdue University, said. "Based on the evidence, we agree with ALI that this expedition offers the best chance not only to solve perhaps the greatest mystery of the 20th century, but also to fulfill Amelia's wishes and bring the Electra home."
Yahoo
01-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Purdue president: Purdue would like to lead expedition to retrieve Earhart's plane
Purdue President Mung Chiang told a group of alumni that Purdue researchers would like to lead an expedition to retrieve what's believed to be the long-missing plane of Amelia Earhart and suggested Purdue has an ownership stake that might allow it to be returned to campus. Chiang, speaking at a fundraising event Friday night in Boston, told the group a related announcement will be made this week. A Purdue spokesman on Monday would not confirm details, saying, "but there will be more to share shortly." Earhart became a visiting professor at Purdue in 1935, and she's one of Purdue's most famous former staff members. A New York Times headline from 1936 proclaimed, "MISS EARHART TO GET 'FLYING LABORATORY'; Purdue Announces $50,000 Fund to Provide a Special Plane for Her Researches." On July 2, 1937, she disappeared over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to become the first female pilot to circumnavigate the world. After several unsuccessful searches for the missing plane over the years, in early 2024, Deep Sea Vision, a marine robotics company in South Carolina, made headlines when it reported that scans produced a blurry sonar image that may be Earhart's Lockheed 10-E Electra deep in the Pacific Ocean. Alexandra Weliever, a 2021 Purdue alumni who was at the event Friday night, said Chiang told his audience that when the new terminal at the Purdue Airport opens in August as announced earlier, it will be named after Earhart. "We believe we've found some remains of her plane," Weliever quoted the Purdue president. "An expedition will be made and so we'd like to be part of that. ... We'd love to help lead the expedition if we can." Tony Romeo, Deep Sea Vision's CEO, said in 2024 to USA TODAY the image the company made appears to be that of a plane on the sea floor about 100 miles from Howland Island. Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, were heading for the island when they disappeared in July 1937. An email to Deep Sea Vision asking about any updates to the discovery in early 2024 or the possibility of Purdue's involvement has not been returned as of Monday afternoon. Contact Virginia Black at vblack@ This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Purdue president: School wants to lead expedition for Earhart's plane