A 16-strong team will head to remote Nikumaroro in October to probe a plane-shaped “Taraia Object” which could be the pioneering pilot’s lost Electra
Archaeologists are “very confident” they have found Amelia Earhart’s missing plane which would end one of the most enduring mysteries of the 20th century.
A team of researchers is heading for the remote Pacific island of Nikumaroro in October hoping to finally prove what happened to the pioneering pilot after she vanished mid-flight in 1937 with navigator Fred Noonan.
“I am feeling very confident about this,” lead archaeologist Richard Pettigrew told USA TODAY. “I’m pumped.”
The mission is a joint effort between Purdue University and the Archaeological Legacy Institute (ALI), and it centres on a specific underwater anomaly nicknamed the “Taraia Object”.
It is a strange, plane-shaped outline spotted in satellite images near the edge of the island’s shallow lagoon. Earhart and Noonan disappeared on July 2, 1937 while attempting to fly around the world.
Many believe the plane ran out of fuel and crashed into the deep ocean. However, the so-called Nikumaroro Hypothesis claims they missed Howland Island, landed on the flat coral reef at Nikumaroro and survived for a time as castaways.
Researchers believe a major tropical storm in 2014 may have shifted the lagoon sand, briefly uncovering wreckage before sediment slowly covered it again. They say the object’s dimensions match Earhart’s aircraft, a Lockheed Electra 10E, USA Today reported.
The team originally wanted to sail in October 2025, but severe Pacific weather and the time needed to secure official clearance from Kiribati – the island nation that controls Nikumaroro – pushed it back a year. With the Kiribati cabinet now approving the trip, a 16-person crew is set to go, as per USA Today.
Their plan involves a six-day boat journey to the uninhabited island, then hacking through dense jungle to reach the lagoon. The team will use a hydraulic dredge to gently vacuum up sand and water, searching for big sections such as the fuselage and wing, plus distinctive metal rivets linked to the Electra’s design.
“This is a hypothesis,” Pettigrew, 78, emphasised. “We won’t know until we go down there and identify it.”
Aviation experts are intrigued – but cautious. “I do believe that they were close to Howland Island based on the records,” said Dorothy Cochrane, a retired curator at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.
Author Rachel Hartigan added: “It would be amazing if they do find something. But there’s just been a lot of promising things that haven’t come through.”
If they hit aircraft aluminium, the team says it will install remote security cameras to deter scavengers, then return in 2027 for a full-scale excavation, according to USA Today.
Pettigrew insists the goal is simple: “Something is there, and it’s either the Electra or it’s not. Somebody has to make that determination – and that’s going to be us.”
Purdue is also in talks with Kiribati about a potential deal to take custody of any wreckage, USA Today reported. “That would be our vision – to fulfill Amelia’s wishes and bring it back to Purdue on permanent display for the world to see,” said Steve Schultz, Purdue’s senior vice president.
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