Nearly nine decades after Amelia Earhart vanished somewhere over the Pacific, the search for her aircraft has entered another chapter. A 17-member team backed by Purdue University has sailed towards the remote island of Nikumaroro, following a potentially significant clue hidden in its lagoon states an online report by Reuters. The expedition hopes to determine whether an unusual object visible in aerial and satellite imagery could be part of Earhart’s missing Lockheed Electra 10-E.
A mystery that began in 1937
As per Reuters, Earhart disappeared on July 2, 1937, while attempting to fly around the world. She and navigator Fred Noonan were travelling from Papua New Guinea toward Howland Island, a tiny Pacific atoll intended to be their next refuelling stop, the report adds.The Electra never arrived. After the aircraft’s final communications, which indicated dwindling fuel and gave its last known position, a massive search operation failed to locate either the plane or its crew. The official US government position has long held that the aircraft ran out of fuel and crashed into the Pacific near Howland Island. Another theory, however, has continued to attract researchers: Earhart and Noonan may have landed on Nikumaroro, formerly known as Gardner Island, and survived for a time as castaways, also states the online report.
The lagoon anomaly
The new expedition, led by marine archaeologist Richard Pettigrew of the Archaeological Legacy Institute in collaboration with Purdue, is focused on an unusual shape identified in imagery of Nikumaroro. The object, first noticed in a 2020 satellite image, has a branching form that researchers believe could resemble an aircraft fuselage and wings. The team has also found indications that a similar feature may appear in aerial photographs dating back to 1938, only months after Earhart disappeared, state the October 10 report by Reuters.The expedition travelled roughly 830 nautical miles to reach the uninhabited island in the Phoenix Islands, part of the Republic of Kiribati. Once there, researchers are expected to spend five days investigating the lagoon before beginning a six-day return journey to Tarawa.
A theory with a long history
The Nikumaroro hypothesis is not new. Explorer Ric Gillespie and the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery have spent decades investigating the island and have uncovered objects that supporters believe could be linked to Earhart, including a 1930s-era cosmetic container and remnants of a pocketknife.As per the report, radio transmission records and an old photograph of the island have also been cited as possible clues. Yet earlier searches for the aircraft in surrounding waters have failed, including a 2019 expedition led by marine archaeologist Robert Ballard. Gillespie believes the aircraft may have initially landed on the reef before eventually being swept into deeper water by tides and surf.
Tree or aircraft?
The latest clue has its own controversy. Critics of the new expedition argue that the strange shape is not an aircraft at all but a fallen pandanus tree, whose roots and branches can create an appearance remarkably similar to the object visible in the imagery, explains the online report. That disagreement will ultimately be settled, if at all, by what researchers find on the ground and beneath the water.The expedition, costing about $900,000, represents another attempt to resolve one of aviation history’s most enduring mysteries. Purdue has a particularly strong connection to Earhart, who worked at the university as a women’s career counsellor and adviser to its aeronautics department and used university support while developing her Electra.Images Courtesy: Wikipedia and Purdue University
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