Current:Home > StocksAmelia Earhart's long-lost plane possibly spotted in the Pacific by exploration team-LoTradeCoin
Amelia Earhart's long-lost plane possibly spotted in the Pacific by exploration team
View Date:2024-12-23 20:22:55
New clues have emerged in what is one of the greatest mysteries of all time: the disappearance of legendary American aviator Amelia Earhart.
Deep Sea Vision, an ocean exploration company based in South Carolina, announced Saturday that it captured compelling sonar images of what appears to be Earhart's aircraft at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.
The discovery was made possible by a high-tech unmanned underwater drone and a 16-member crew, which surveyed more than 5,200 square miles of ocean floor between September and December.
The team spotted the plane-shaped object between Australia and Hawaii, about 100 miles off Howland Island, which is where Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, were supposed to refuel but never arrived.
The shape of the object in the sonar images closely resembles Earhart's aircraft, a Lockheed Electra, both in size and tail. Deep Sea Vision founder, Tony Romeo, said he was optimistic in what they found.
"All that combined, you'd be hard-pressed to convince me that this is not an airplane and not Amelia's plane," he said.
The Deep Sea Vision team plans to investigate the area where the images were taken some time this year, Romeo added.
Earhart and Noonan vanished in 1937 while on a quest to circumnavigate the globe. The trip would have made Earhart the first female pilot to fly around the world.
Nearly a century later, neither of their bodies nor their plane have been definitively recovered — becoming one of the greatest mysteries of all time and generating countless theories as to what may have happened.
Romeo, a pilot and former U.S. Air Force intelligence officer, sold his real estate company's assets in 2022 to start an ocean exploration business and, in large part, join the long line of oceanic detectives hoping to find answers to Earhart's disappearance.
His team had captured the sonar images a month into their expedition, but did not realize what they had discovered until the last day of their trip.
"It was really a surreal moment," Romeo said.
The prospect of Earhart's plane lodged in the ocean floor backs up the popular theory that the aircraft ran out of fuel and sank into the water. But others have suggested that she and Noonan landed on an island and starved to death. Some believe the two crashed and were taken by Japanese forces, who were expanding their presence in the region leading up to World War II.
"I like everything that everybody's contributed to the story, I think it's great. It's added to the legacy of Amelia Earhart," Romeo said. "But in the end, I think what's important is that she was a really good pilot."
veryGood! (87)
Related
- Full House Star Dave Coulier Shares Stage 3 Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma Diagnosis
- Off the Grid: Sally breaks down USA TODAY's daily crossword puzzle, Good Try (Freestyle)
- Jax Taylor Breaks Silence on Brittany Cartwright Dating His Friend Amid Their Divorce
- Bodyless head washes ashore on a South Florida beach
- Former NFL coach Jack Del Rio charged with operating vehicle while intoxicated
- Jamie Lee Curtis and Don Lemon quit X, formerly Twitter: 'Time for me to leave'
- 'Serial swatter': 18-year-old pleads guilty to making nearly 400 bomb threats, mass shooting calls
- New Pentagon report on UFOs includes hundreds of new incidents but no evidence of aliens
- Why Cynthia Erivo Needed Prosthetic Ears for Wicked
- NFL Week 11 picks straight up and against spread: Will Bills hand Chiefs first loss of season?
Ranking
- Colorado police shot, kill mountain lion after animal roamed on school's campus
- Opinion: NFL began season with no Black offensive coordinators, first time since the 1980s
- Jimmy Kimmel, more late-night hosts 'shocked' by Trump Cabinet picks: 'Goblins and weirdos'
- New Orleans marks with parade the 64th anniversary of 4 little girls integrating city schools
- ‘Maybe Happy Ending’ review: Darren Criss shines in one of the best musicals in years
- Hurricane-stricken Tampa Bay Rays to play 2025 season at Yankees’ spring training field in Tampa
- Burt Bacharach, composer of classic songs, will have papers donated to Library of Congress
- New York races to revive Manhattan tolls intended to fight traffic before Trump can block them
Recommendation
-
Chrysler recalls over 200k Jeep, Dodge vehicles over antilock-brake system: See affected models
-
Cruel Intentions' Brooke Lena Johnson Teases the Biggest Differences Between the Show and the 1999 Film
-
Will Aaron Rodgers retire? Jets QB tells reporters he plans to play in 2025
-
Justice Department says jail conditions in Georgia’s Fulton County violate detainee rights
-
Rachael Ray Details Getting Bashed Over Decision to Not Have Kids
-
Kim Kardashian and Kourtney Kardashian Team Up for SKIMS Collab With Dolce & Gabbana After Feud
-
Paraguay vs. Argentina live updates: Watch Messi play World Cup qualifying match tonight
-
Video ‘bares’ all: Insurers say bear that damaged luxury cars was actually a person in a costume