Expedition seeks to find Amelia Earhart's missing plane

Summarised from 2 outlets · Updated 11 Oct, 05:36 · Archive

A research team is heading to a remote Pacific island to investigate what may be the wreckage of aviator Amelia Earhart's plane.

A research team from the US-based Archaeological Legacy Institute and Purdue University are en route to Nikumaroro Island in the Pacific Ocean, expected to arrive by Monday. They aim to investigate the so-called Taraia Object, first spotted on the edge of a lagoon in satellite imagery in 2020 and subsequently confirmed in aerial photographs dating to at least 1938.

Amelia Earhart, a pioneering American aviator, disappeared in 1937 whilst attempting to fly around the world in her Electra twin-engine aircraft. She had already successfully flown from California across South America, Africa and Asia before vanishing near the Pacific island. The 17-member expedition team departed Kiribati's capital on Wednesday and are making an 830-mile journey aboard the Marin Mainiku vessel.

Richard Pettigrew, head of the Archaeological Legacy Institute and expedition lead, said: 'Finding Amelia Earhart's Electra aircraft would be the discovery of a lifetime.' Steve Schultz, general counsel at Purdue University and an expedition member, described it as 'solving one of the great mysteries in aviation history'. The team will need to navigate through a narrow passage in the atoll's reef created by the British in 1963, the last time the island was inhabited.

How it is being reported

• Amelia Earhart expedition headed to remote island to in hopes of finding wreckageA team of scientists are now headed to a remote island in the Pacific to find what they believe is the wreckage of Amelia Earhart's plane. The group, backed by Purdue University, first launched its expedition to solve the famed aviator's disappearance last year . The US-based Archaeological Legacy Institute (ALI) expect to arrive at Nikumaroro Island in the Pacific Ocean by Monday. There, they hope to find the mysterious Taraia Object, which was first spotted on the edge of lagoon on the island six years ago. TRENDING Stories Videos Your Say Amelia Earhart, a pioneering aviator who became…GB News · 11 Oct, 05:28
• Expedition hopes to find aviator Amelia Earhart's plane on remote islandThe team en route to the suspected crash site aim finally to solve the mystery of her 1937 disappearance.BBC News · 10 Oct, 19:22

In this story: Amelia Earhart · Archaeological Legacy Institute · Purdue University · Nikumaroro Island · Richard Pettigrew

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