Expedition reaches Nikumaroro to inspect possible Amelia Earhart plane wreckage

The Big Picture

A joint expedition involving the Archaeological Legacy Institute and Purdue University has reached Nikumaroro, an uninhabited atoll in Kiribati, to investigate a submerged lagoon anomaly that researchers hope could be Amelia Earhart's missing aircraft.

The 17-member team is focused on the Taraia Object, an elongated shape near the Taraia Peninsula that was first noticed in satellite imagery in 2020. Expedition organizers say the object can also be seen in aerial photographs dating to 1938. Its identity has not been established.

“Finding Amelia Earhart's Electra aircraft would be the discovery of a lifetime,” Richard Pettigrew, the Archaeological Legacy Institute's executive director and the expedition leader, said before the voyage.

What Happened

The team traveled from Tarawa, Kiribati's capital, aboard the Kiribati National Shipping Line vessel Marin Mainiku. The voyage to Nikumaroro covered roughly 830 nautical miles and took about five days. Reports differ on the precise arrival date, with some placing it on Oct. 12 and others on Oct. 13.

After reaching the atoll, researchers began preparing to move equipment ashore and cut through dense vegetation toward the lagoon. The expedition plans to search the peninsula for aircraft-related artifacts, use magnetometers to detect magnetic metals and sonar to assess the lagoon floor, then remove sediment with dredging equipment for a visual inspection.

Organizers estimate that the object is about 10 feet from shore and, depending on the tide, may be beneath as little as five feet of water plus an unknown depth of sediment. CBS News reported Wednesday that the group remained in the data-gathering phase before using a hydraulic dredge.

The team is sleeping aboard the Marin Mainiku rather than camping on the island. Purdue and expedition updates cited the large coconut crabs active on Nikumaroro at night as one reason that overnight stays on land are impractical.

Background

Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared on July 2, 1937, while attempting to reach Howland Island during Earhart's planned circumnavigation of the globe. Howland was intended as a refueling stop.

The broadly accepted explanation is that communication and navigation problems prevented the pair from locating Howland Island, after which their Lockheed Model 10-E Electra ran out of fuel and crashed into the ocean. No physical evidence of the aircraft has been recovered.

A competing hypothesis is that Earhart and Noonan reached Nikumaroro, where the plane may have landed or been ditched and the pair may have survived temporarily as castaways. Purdue supported Earhart's final flight, and the university is involved in the current mission.

Previous leads have failed to resolve the mystery. A sonar target near Howland Island that was publicized in 2024 was later identified as a rock formation, according to the BBC. A 2019 expedition near Nikumaroro investigating a possible landing-gear image also did not locate the aircraft.

What Each Side Is Saying

Pettigrew and his colleagues say an inspection could determine whether the lagoon object is the Electra. The team has said sediment may explain why earlier searches did not identify it.

Ric Gillespie, co-founder of the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, disputes that conclusion. He told the Guardian that the object is likely a dead pandanus tree that entered the lagoon. Gillespie said teams using metal detectors searched the precise location in 2001 and 2007 without finding anything.

Gillespie's group supports a version of the Nikumaroro hypothesis, but believes the Electra was washed off a reef and may lie in pieces in deep water near the island's western end.

What Happens Next

The expedition's immediate task is to complete remote-sensing work and inspect the object below the sediment. BBC News reported that the field inspection was expected to take about five days, while NBC News said the overall travel and search operation was expected to last at least three weeks. Those estimates appear to refer to different stages of the mission.

Until the team recovers or documents material that can be identified, the Taraia Object remains an unverified lead in one of aviation's longest-running mysteries.