Team searches for Amelia Earhart's plane on Pacific island

Summarised from 2 outlets · Updated 13 Oct, 18:08 · Archive

Researchers have arrived at Nikumaroro Island in the Pacific to search for wreckage from Amelia Earhart's plane, which vanished in 1937.

A 17-person expedition team has arrived at Nikumaroro Island in the remote Pacific Ocean to search for wreckage from Amelia Earhart's plane. Earhart and her co-pilot Fred Noonan vanished in 1937 as they attempted to fly around the world. Researchers from Purdue University and the Archaeological Legacy Institute suspect that Earhart and Noonan miscalculated their route and ended up on Nikumaroro Island instead of their intended destination, Howland Island. Before losing contact, Earhart told the US Coast Guard she was unable to find Howland Island.

Satellite imagery has revealed objects researchers believe are the remains of the plane's tail, wing and body sitting metres from the shoreline. The team is expected to search the island for around five days. On the first day ashore, the expedition is focusing on transporting equipment, clearing vegetation and establishing operations at the beach and on the south side of the lagoon.

The researchers will face hazardous conditions on the island, which is home to coconut crabs—giant land crabs with leg spans of up to three feet that are known to hunt small mammals. To avoid the crabs, the team will sleep on their research vessel each night. There have been theories that Earhart and Noonan may have died in a plane crash on the island, with their bodies potentially carried away by the crabs.

How it is being reported

• Amelia Earhart mystery enters critical phase as explorers zero in on mysterious objectThe 17-person Taraia Object expedition team reached Nikumaroro Island to investigate a satellite anomaly that could be Amelia Earhart's Lockheed Electra.Fox News · 13 Oct, 17:45
• Crew searching for Amelia Earhart explore ‘crab-infested’ remote island for plane wreckageThe research group will spend around five days on the island (Picture: Getty) Researchers have begun to search for the remnants of Amelia Earhart’s plane on a remote Pacific Island. A group from the Archaeological Legacy Institute and Purdue University will search Nikumaroro Island for wreckage…Metro · 13 Oct, 14:18

In this story: Amelia Earhart · Fred Noonan · Nikumaroro Island · Purdue University · Archaeological Legacy Institute · Howland Island

This summary was written by AI from the headlines and standfirsts above, and states as fact only what at least two outlets report. How we use AI · Report a problem