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By Jesus Mesa
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Nearly nine decades after Amelia Earhart vanished over the Pacific Ocean, a new expedition may finally offer an answer to one of aviation’s most enduring mysteries.
Next month, a team from Purdue University and the Archaeological Legacy Institute (ALI) will travel to a remote South Pacific island to investigate a submerged object that could be the wreckage of Earhart’s Lockheed Electra 10E—the aircraft she flew on her final flight in 1937.
“This case has taken a long time,” ALI Executive Director Dr. Richard Pettigrew told Newsweek in an exclusive interview. “But we have some new evidence. There’s an object visible in the Nikumaroro lagoon. Everything that we see indicates it’s very possible, perhaps even likely, that this is what remains of Amelia Earhart’s aircraft.”
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The 15-member crew will depart from Majuro in the Marshall Islands on November 4. After a six-day journey to Nikumaroro—an uninhabited atoll in Kiribati—they’ll begin fieldwork at the site of what they call the “Taraia Object,” a bright, aircraft-shaped anomaly visible in recent satellite and aerial images of the island’s lagoon.
The expedition comes amid new interest in Earhart's story after President Donald Trump said last month, seemingly out of nowhere, ordered the FBI to “declassify and release all government records” related to the famous aviator and her final flight.
For Purdue University, which helped fund Earhart’s final flight and has long preserved her legacy, the project is a chance to both solve a mystery and honor a history.
“Over the years, many people have claimed to know where the plane was, but none of the evidence felt strong enough,” said Kelly Hiller, Purdue’s chief marketing officer, in an interview with Newsweek. “That changed when ALI approached us. After reviewing everything with our experts, we believed it was worth supporting.”
What Is the Taraia Object?
The anomaly was first noticed in 2020 by researcher Michael Ashmore in an Apple Maps image. The satellite image itself was captured in 2015, shortly after Cyclone Pam hit the region—an event believed to have shifted the lagoon’s sediment, exposing the object.
New satellite images captured by Vantor, formerly Maxar Technologies, and shared with Newsweek show a long, reflective shape beneath the water near the Taraia Peninsula, just east of Tatiman Passage. Its size and outline resemble the fuselage and tail of a Lockheed Electra 10E—details that caught the attention of ALI and Purdue’s research team.
“We’re relying on evidence,” Pettigrew said. “This is not just some speculation.”
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The Nikumaroro theory suggests that Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, landed on the island’s reef before their plane was swept away. Groups like TIGHAR (The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery) have visited the island many times, but none of those expeditions focused on the object now under investigation.
Unlike prior deep-sea searches, this mission targets one specific location. Pettigrew said the team will use drones, sonar and magnetometers to examine the site before probing the sediment and eventually excavating it using a hydraulic dredge.
“Once we confirm what’s beneath the surface, we’ll know whether we’ve found the aircraft or not,” Pettigrew said.
Researchers believe the lighter fuselage could have floated into the lagoon after the aircraft broke apart on the reef. According to ALI, footage from as early as 1938 up to 2024 show the same object in the same spot, buried and occasionally re-exposed.
Bringing the Electra Home
Earhart worked at Purdue from 1935 to 1937 as a career counselor and aviation advisor. Her Electra was funded by the Purdue Research Foundation with the understanding that it would return to the university for research once the flight was completed.
“Our intent is to explore bringing it back to Purdue,” Hiller said. “That was always the plan—Amelia and her husband wanted the plane returned for further research and teaching. Now we have a real chance to do that.”
Hiller and colleague Trevor Peters will be based in Honolulu during the expedition, coordinating communication between the field team and the public. They plan to release daily updates and manage any announcement if the plane is found.
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Not everyone is convinced the Taraia Object is the smoking gun in the nearly century-old mystery. Ric Gillespie of TIGHAR told the BBC that the sonar images of the object don’t match the Electra’s design. Dorothy Cochrane, curator at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, said more data is needed: “Photographing the object would greatly assist in identifying it further.”
But Pettigrew remains focused on the mission. “We believe the fuselage floated into the lagoon and sank near the Taraia Peninsula,” he said. “The object’s shape, location, and history all match that scenario.”
The team expects to reach the site around November 10 and spend several days investigating. Results could be announced shortly afterward, depending on what they find.
“The only thing I’m absolutely certain of,” Pettigrew said, “is that we have to go and look.”
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