Experts Think They've Finally Found Amelia Earhart's Plane After Nearly 90 Years
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A team of researchers is adamant it has finally, at long last, found Amelia Earhart's plane that went missing nearly a century ago.
In less than a month, a team of researchers at Purdue University will join an Archaeological Legacy Institute expedition to the South Pacific, where they'll visit a remote island to confirm "if a visual anomaly in a lagoon of Nikumaroro Island" — some nearly 1,000 miles from Fiji in the country of Kiribati — is the Lockheed Electra 10E that Earhart flew in an attempt to become the first female pilot to circle the world.
Earhart Disappeared Nearly 90 Years Ago
The plane, however, disappeared with Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, over the Pacific Ocean on July 2, 1937, never to be seen or heard from again. In the years and decades that followed, countless researchers and explorers have sought to find the plane, to no avail.
Researchers Will Head to the Remote Pacific
Then, on Wednesday, Purdue University's Research Foundation announced its plans to make the three-week trek to the remote island, with some members flying out of the Amelia Earhart Terminal at the Purdue University Airport on Oct. 30.
“What we have here is maybe the greatest opportunity ever to finally close the case,” said Richard Pettigrew, ALI’s executive director. “With such a great amount of very strong evidence, we feel we have no choice but to move forward and hopefully return with proof. I look forward to collaborating with Purdue Research Foundation in writing the final chapter in Amelia Earhart’s remarkable life story.”
The team, a 15-person crew, will then arrive on Majuro in the Marshall Islands, the school announced, and leave there by sea on Nov. 4, and "sail approximately 1,200 nautical miles to Nikumaroro and then spend several days on the small island in the search effort."
The team "will focus on inspecting the Taraia Object, first noticed in satellite imagery in 2020 and later confirmed to be visible on aerial photos taken of the island’s lagoon as far back as 1938."
The trip's plans come just days after the Trump administration announced it would declassify records about the 1937 disappearance.
A mystery 88 years in the making! ????
— Purdue University (@LifeAtPurdue) October 1, 2025
Purdue joins the Archaeological Legacy Institute in a South Pacific expedition to search for Amelia Earhart’s missing Lockheed Electra airplane. https://t.co/WqEEWi6XwA
"Amelia made it almost three-quarters around the World before she suddenly, and without notice, vanished, never to be seen again," President Donald Trump wrote on his social media platform. "Her disappearance, almost 90 years ago, has captivated millions."
Not Everyone Is Sold on the Expedition
Ric Gillespie, director of The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR), told NBC News in July that his team's been there, done that.
“We’ve looked there in that spot, and there’s nothing there,” he said.
He added, "I understand the desire to find a piece of Amelia Earhart's airplane. God knows we've tried. But the data, the facts, do not support the hypothesis. It’s as simple as that.”