Expedition lands on Nikumaroro to test a possible Amelia Earhart plane wreck
A team of 17 researchers reached the uninhabited Pacific atoll of Nikumaroro on Monday, 12 October, to examine a submerged object that may be Amelia Earhart's Lockheed Electra. Other specialists consider a fallen tree in the lagoon the more likely explanation.
The expedition arrives
A team from the Archaeological Legacy Institute and Purdue University reached Nikumaroro, an uninhabited atoll in the Pacific Ocean that is part of Kiribati, on Monday, 12 October. The 17 researchers travelled on the ship Marin Mainiku, which arrived at the western side of the island after a five-day voyage covering 830 nautical miles from Tarawa, the capital of Kiribati. The expedition is led by Rick Pettigrew, head of the Archaeological Legacy Institute, a non-profit organisation based in the United States. The project received funding with help from Purdue University in Indiana, where Earhart once worked as a teacher.
Pettigrew described the mission in a blog post on Monday.
It is incredibly rewarding to be this close to completing our inspection of the Taraia Object and potentially solving, at long last, the outstanding mystery of the disappearance of Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan more than 89 years ago.
The Taraia Object
The search centres on an elongated shape called the Taraia Object, first identified in a satellite image from 2020 on the edge of a lagoon off Nikumaroro. The expedition says the object can also be seen in aerial photographs taken in 1938, a year after Earhart vanished, and that other aerial images suggest a possible metallic reflection. Some people believe the object is the wreckage of her plane, while others doubt that it is an aircraft at all. No evidence yet proves that the remains belong to an aeroplane, and other specialists consider the structure more likely to be a fallen tree.
The 1937 disappearance
Earhart, then 39, vanished in 1937 together with her navigator, Fred Noonan, while attempting to fly around the world along a route near the equator. She had already won international recognition for her records, including becoming the first woman to cross the Atlantic solo and non-stop. When the plane was running low on fuel, the pair were heading for Howland Island, about 640 kilometres north of Nikumaroro. One theory holds that they reached Nikumaroro and made an emergency landing there instead of falling into the ocean.
Conditions and the work ahead
Coconut crabs, also known as robber crabs, come out at night to hunt small mammals and seabirds, so the crew will sleep on their ship for their own safety. The El Niño climate phenomenon, which the BBC describes as now the strongest ever recorded, could also hamper the work. This is the first authorised trip to Nikumaroro in seven years, and the first visit to the Taraia Peninsula in more than 15 years, according to Purdue. The work is expected to take five days.
- Team arrives at Nikumaroro and the ship reaches the western side of the island
- Crew plans to navigate through the reef gap blasted in 1963 to prepare for landing
- Search shifts to the Taraia Peninsula for evidence including magnetic metals
On Tuesday, 13 October, the crew plans to navigate through a narrow gap in the reef that the British blasted in 1963, the last time the island was inhabited, to prepare for landing. The first day ashore will focus on transporting equipment, clearing vegetation and establishing staging operations, and one group will cut a trail through the jungle. On Wednesday, 14 October, the search shifts to the Taraia Peninsula for evidence including magnetic metals. The final step is dredging sediment so the team can inspect the object visually.
