Amelia Earhart Plane Search: Investigators Share Major Update
Amelia Earhart's Plane May Have Been Found in Lagoon on Remote Island: Everything to Know About Search
The search for Amelia Earhart's missing plane has continued to sputter.
After researchers traveled to the uninhabited South Pacific island of Nikumaroro to search for the pilot's missing aircraft after satellite images showed a mysterious shape—dubbed the Taraia Object—submerged in a nearby lagoon, they confirmed that the expedition found no conclusive evidence about its whereabouts.
"We can say now, after the conclusion of our work, that the Taraia Object did not or does not represent the wreckage of Amelia Earhart's Electra aircraft," the Archaeological Legacy Institute's executive director Rick Pettigrew said in an Oct. 18 YouTube video. "Instead, we think it's most likely that the object was a collection of debris that accumulated here."
Pettigrew—whose team worked with researchers at Purdue University—noted that, unfortunately, the mystery has been "ongoing for 90 years, and the mystery continues."
As for what was seen in the 2020 satellite imagery that sparked the investigation?
Evidence gathered at the Taraia Peninsula, according to an Oct. 18 Purdue press release, confirmed that the "visual anomaly" was "likely a collection of large trees deposited along the peninsula's sandspit."
"The fragment's reflective surface, long associated with the idea that the object was a metallic substance, was due to its carbonate veneer," the release added. "Other items found by the team were similarly coated with a shiny concretized amalgam of coral sand."
But that doesn't mean the expedition to find Earhart's plane—which disappeared over the Pacific Ocean in 1937 while she attempted to fly around the world—was fruitless.
"At the same time, the evidence for the castaway hypothesis, which brought us here, remained very, very strong," Pettigrew explained. "We think that it's very likely that Amelia and her navigator Fred Noonan did, in fact, end up here on Nikumaroro Island."
"We accomplished our main goal, which was to come here and test that hypothesis," he continued. "We followed our game plan. We did the analysis."
New York Times Co./Getty Images
Purdue's general counsel Steve Schultz couldn't help but praise the team for taking the investigation to new heights.
"Unfortunately, we weren't able to find that smoking gun, but we're again proud of what we accomplished," he added in the YouTube video. "We leave Nikumaroro knowing more than what we did when we came here."
"Amelia herself said, ‘Adventure is worthwhile in itself,’" Schultz said. “We've lived that out this week with all the trials and tribulations that we had, the things that we've had to overcome, and yet be able to follow our game plan and follow the evidence to the end. We're very proud of that, and we leave fulfilled in that sense."
Earhart's disappearance isn't the only mystery that has made headlines. Keep reading for more...
Splash News
JonBenét Ramsey
The 6-year-old pageant star was brutally murdered at her Colorado home on Christmas 1996. Her parents, brother and more have all been suspects, but to this day no one really knows who killed JonBenét.
Ron Galella/Lee Celano/WireImage
Nicole Brown Simpson & Ron Goldman
O.J. Simpson, who died in April 2024 after a battle with cancer, was found guilty in a civil trial of both 1994 murders, but in the criminal trial, the jury acquitted him. Technically, in the eyes of the law, the famous NFL player didn't do it, so their murderer remains unknown (and perhaps at large).
Ron Galella/WireImage
Tupac Shakur
Depending on whom you ask, someone might say Tupac is still alive. But the "Changes" rapper was murdered in 1996, and the investigation is still unsolved.
Clarence Davis/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images
Notorious B.I.G.
About a year and a half after Tupac, Biggie Smalls was shot four times in a drive-by shooting. His killer still remains unknown.
Orlando Sentinel/MCT via Getty Images
Caylee Anthony
Casey Anthony, Caylee's mother, went through a highly publicized trial only to be found not guilty of her daughter's murder. As a result, it's still unknown who murdered this little girl.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS PHOTO/Getty Images
Elizabeth Short a.k.a. The Black Dahlia
Short, who was murdered in 1947, and the mystery surrounding her death became an instant media sensation. She received "The Black Dahlia" moniker posthumously, but to this day, her killer remains unknown.
Bettmann Archive
Amelia Earhart
Exactly one month after the groundbreaking pilot, 39, and her navigator Fred Noonan, 44, began their quest to fly around the world, they vanished—seemingly into thin air. On July 2, 1937, Earhart radioed the U.S. Coast Guard in what would be her final transmission: "We are running north and south."
The pair, who were believed to be flying in their Lockheed Model 10-E Electra towards the remote Howland Island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, were never heard from again.
Bettmann/Getty Images
Andrew Borden & Abby Borden
This couple was brutally murdered with an axe in 1892, but it was their daughter, Lizzie Borden, who was tried and acquitted for the crime. The deaths of Andrew Borden and Abby Borden were never solved.
PytyCzech/Getty Images
Jack the Ripper
In 1888, an unknown serial killer hit the streets of London. More than 100 years later, the identity of Jack the Ripper remains unknown.
Carl Hugare/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
The Chicago Tylenol Murders
These murders were a series of poisoning deaths resulting from drug tampering in Chicago in 1982. The victims, who included children, had all taken Tylenol-branded acetaminophen capsules that had been laced with potassium cyanide. A total of seven people died in the original poisonings, with several more deaths in subsequent copycat crimes. The person responsible is still unknown.
AP
The Zodiac Killer
He was a serial killer who acted in Northern California in the late 1960s and early 1970s, but his identity still remains unknown. The killer originated the name "Zodiac" in a series of taunting letters sent to the local Bay Area press. These letters included four cryptograms (or ciphers). Of the four cryptograms sent, only one has been definitively solved.
For the latest breaking news updates, click here to download the E! News App
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.