Expedition reaches Nikumaroro to examine object possibly linked to Earhart

A 17-member expedition backed by Purdue University was expected to reach Nikumaroro Island in the South Pacific on Tuesday to examine a submerged object researchers suspect could be the Lockheed Electra 10-E flown by Amelia Earhart. The team left Tarawa, Kiribati, last week aboard a research vessel and plans to spend five days at the site, according to the source account.

The focus is the Taraia Object, an unusual shape spotted in satellite imagery in 2020. Researchers say the same shape appears in aerial photographs from 1938. The trip follows an earlier postponement attributed to permitting delays and weather concerns.

Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan vanished in July 1937 during an attempt to fly around the world. Howland Island, their intended destination, is roughly 400 miles northwest of Nikumaroro.

Expedition leader Richard Pettigrew described the prospect of finding the aircraft as the discovery of a lifetime, saying confirmation of wreckage there would be decisive proof. The team plans to survey the island with drones, then use sonar and magnetometers on the submerged object before exposing it with a hydraulic dredge for identification. Any recovery of wreckage would need further authorisation from the Kiribati government.

Not all researchers involved in the search agree on what the object is. Ric Gillespie, co-founder of the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, said the shape shows a root ball and branches and is a tree, adding that people see what they want to see. Gillespie, who has searched Nikumaroro several times, believes Earhart may have landed on the island but that the aircraft later washed into deeper water. No definitive wreckage from the plane has been identified.