What's Happening
For three days, the team hunting for Amelia Earhart's plane could only watch the island. Strong winds and rough seas, driven by El Niño conditions, kept them aboard their research vessel off Nikumaroro, a remote, uninhabited atoll in Kiribati.
On Sunday the weather cleared. "We are finally getting off the ship and able to land on Nikumaroro," technology specialist Sirisha Bandla said in a video from the deck of the Marin Mainiku. "The crew's really excited."
Key Facts
- Earhart vanished in 1937 while trying to fly around the world, on a leg toward Howland Island near Nikumaroro.
- The team is investigating the "Taraia Object", a shape in the atoll's lagoon that Purdue says is visible in photos dating back to 1938.
- The expedition is led by Purdue University and the US-based Archaeological Legacy Institute.
- Wind gusts of up to 27 knots made it risky to bring a boat through the narrow reef gap into the lagoon.
- The team has extended its fieldwork after the delay and hasn't yet said whether it has found anything promising.
- New Zealand's Air Force Museum released previously unseen 1938 images of the island on Friday.
- Skeptics think the Taraia Object may just be a fallen tree.
Why It Matters
Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan disappeared almost 90 years ago, and people still care. One theory says she missed Howland, landed on Nikumaroro and died there as a castaway. Purdue points to a 15-year-old in Florida who reported hearing Earhart's voice repeat "New York City" on her father's shortwave radio. Supporters of the theory think she may have been naming the wreck of the SS Norwich City, a British ship that ran aground on the island in 1929.
Past searches have come up empty. A 2024 sonar image near Howland turned out to be rock, and a 2019 expedition near Nikumaroro found nothing. This team plans to probe underwater objects and dredge sediment next.
Whatever they find, the story still pulls people in because it's about a pioneer who went further than anyone expected, and a question that has never been answered. As ALI director Rick Pettigrew put it, results will be shared "as soon as we are able".
FAQ
Have they found Amelia Earhart's plane?
Not yet. The team has only just landed on Nikumaroro after a three-day weather delay and hasn't reported any findings. It plans to probe underwater objects and dredge sediment around the Taraia Object.
