The tragic and mysterious disappearance of American pilot Amelia Earhart while flying over the Pacific Ocean on July 2, 1937, has captivated the world for nearly 87 years, prompting countless investigations and explorations to find answers to what happened to the beloved aviator.
Recently, in January 2024, underwater archaeologists and maritime robotics experts from Deep Sea Vision, an ocean exploration company based in Charleston, South Carolina, USA, claimed they might have found a clue to the mysterious disappearance.
Using sonar imagery, the team discovered an anomaly beneath the Pacific Ocean at a depth of more than 4,877 meters – resembling a small aircraft.
Sonar waves detect an image resembling an underwater aircraft. Photo: Deep Sea Vision Deep Sea Vision announced this discovery in an Instagram post on January 27.The research team believes this image could be of the Lockheed 10-E Electra, the 10-passenger plane Earhart was flying when she disappeared.
“Some people call this one of the greatest mysteries of all time, and I agree,” said Deep Sea Vision’s CEO, Tony Romeo, a pilot and former Air Force intelligence officer. “We have the opportunity to solve one of the biggest mysteries in American history.”
Romeo said the image was discovered about 161 kilometers from Howland Island, the next destination Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan were supposed to land after their final flight from Lae, Papua New Guinea. The two were declared missing at sea after a 16-day search conducted by the U.S. government.
Photo Deep Sea Vision scanned more than 13,468 square kilometers of the ocean floor using a modern Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) called Hugin 6000, mapping the seabed with sonar technology.
Romeo told CNN that the company’s expedition began in early September 2023 and concluded in December.
Romeo hopes to return to the site this year for further confirmation. The research team will also consider the possibility of retrieving the discovered object to the surface.
Photo: Deep Sea Vision Deep Sea Vision’s missing aircraft search equipment.Amelia Earhart, an American pilot, became the first woman and the second person to fly solo and non-stop across the Atlantic Ocean in 1932, five years after Charles Lindbergh achieved the feat.
Along with navigator Fred Noonan, Amelia Earhart was circumnavigating the globe when the plane disappeared over the Pacific Ocean.
A 2017 History Channel documentary suggested that Earhart and Noonan’s plane crashed in the Marshall Islands – about 1,609 kilometers from Howland Island – where they were captured and taken to Saipan, held as prisoners, and eventually died. This theory is based on a photograph from the U.S. National Archives believed to show the pilot and aircraft.
Photo: Amelia Earhart beside the Lockheed Model 10-E Electra, the aircraft she used for her around-the-world flight. Earhart and the aircraft disappeared on July 2, 1937
The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) suggested in 2016 that Earhart and Noonan survived after landing on a Pacific Ocean coral reef but later died from being stranded.
The most popular theory, presented by the U.S. government and the Smithsonian Museum, is that Earhart and Noonan crashed into the Pacific Ocean near Howland Island when their plane ran out of fuel.
Dorothy Cochrane of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum said the new sonar image of the missing aircraft is of particular interest because it is near Howland Island.
In Earhart’s last communication, the signal grew stronger as she neared Howland Island, indicating she was close to the island before disappearing, Cochrane said.
