New Expedition to Nikumaroro Aims to Locate Amelia Earhart's Missing Plane
Researchers plan to sail to Nikumaroro Island in early October to examine a satellite-detected object that could be Amelia Earhart’s lost Lockheed Electra.
A team of researchers is set to launch the Taraia Object Expedition from Purdue University on Oct. 7, traveling to Nikumaroro Island in the Pacific to investigate a satellite-identified feature dubbed the Taraia Object. The venture, organized by the Archaeological Legacy Institute and endorsed by Kiribati’s cabinet, seeks to test the Nikumaroro hypothesis that Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan crashed and survived on the remote atoll after missing Howland Island.
Richard Pettigrew, the institute’s founder, expressed gratitude for public patience and emphasized the need for on-site inspection. The mission builds on newly released National Archives documents and pilot Justin Myers’s suggestion that Google Earth may show Earhart’s aircraft. If successful, the expedition could finally resolve a mystery that has persisted since Earhart vanished on July 2, 1937.
Why it matters
Resolving Earhart's disappearance would settle a historic aviation mystery and guide future preservation of the remote island.
In this story