Posted on 10/06/2025 8:55:49 AM PDT by Red Badger
Researchers from Purdue University are set to travel to the South Pacific to determine if a "visual anomaly" on a remote island is the wreck of Amelia Earhart's lost plane, saying there is "very strong" evidence the object is the iconic aviator's aircraft.
Earhart was attempting to become the first female pilot to circle the world when she and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared over the Pacific Ocean on July 2, 1937. Earhart, Noonan and their plane, an Electra 10E, were never found. Recently, President Trump ordered records related to Earhart be declassified.
In 2020, researchers looking at satellite imagery identified a "visual anomaly" known as the Taraia Object in a lagoon on Nikumaroro, a small island in Kiribati about halfway between Australia and Hawaii, according to a news release from Purdue University. Nikumaroro is about 400 miles southeast of Howland Island, Earhart and Noonan's planned destination.
The underwater object has been visible in photos dating back to 1938, the year after Earhart and Noonan disappeared.
A team of researchers from Purdue University, the Purdue Research Foundation and the Archaeological Legacy Institute will travel to Nikumaroro to inspect the object in November. The team will first take photos and videos of the site, then use magnetometers and sonar devices to scan the area. Then, the item will be dredged and lifted from the water so researchers can attempt to identify it.
A mystery 88 years in the making! 🔎
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
— Purdue University (@LifeAtPurdue) October 1, 2025 Theories have abounded about Earhart and Noonan's fates since their disappearance. One theory suggests that Earhart landed on Nikumaroro and was marooned on the island before her death. The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, a nonprofit organization based in Pennsylvania, has collected evidence it says supports the theory. Richard Pettigrew, the executive director of the Archaeological Legacy Institute, said that the expedition offers a chance to find "smoking-gun proof" that confirms the theory.
''We gathered up many more satellite images, did historical research, found other imagery that relates to it," Pettrigrew said. "We're going to go look and identify it. And if we're right, we'll in fact identify the lost Electra. We could be wrong but I think the evidence is very, very strong that this is, in fact what it is.''
However, Ric Gillespie, executive director of the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, has expressed skepticism. "We've looked there in that spot, and there's nothing there," he told NBC News in July.
Steve Schultz, a Purdue senior vice president and the university's general counsel, will be a field assistant on the expedition. He said that if the object is identified as Earhart's plane, the university hopes it can transport the plane home. Earhart worked at Purdue University for two years in the 1930s, and the Purdue Research Foundation originally paid for the airplane that Earhart flew, the school said. She planned to return the craft to the university after her trip around the world.
"A successful identification would be the first step toward fulfilling Amelia's original plan to return the Electra to West Lafayette after her historic flight," Schultz said in the news release.
Last year, an expedition team captured a sonar image in the Pacific Ocean that appeared to resemble Earhart's plane resting at the bottom of the sea. It turned out to be a rock formation.
Seems like an awful long time to maybe having real evidence of this incident. Anyway, the world is waiting to know really happenned;as much as can be determined.
Not only was I involved with TS and above since I was 18 years old. Also, I, and two of my people, spent over three years working out of the National Archives as the POC for all classification review of special weapons documents. There is no "reason sheet" but there could be a printed item listing the classification document used to make that document classified at a certain level.
The bad thing is it is considered classified to reveal any location where the special weapons are located, so, to keep things out of the reach of anybody, they will preface documents with a description of the location where the document is being created and that the location stores special weapons. Simple things like the Commissary inspection reports, minor personnel forms, almost everything, had a mention of special weapons storage locations so as only a few people were ever allowed to see the report.
Correct. And the need, much less inclination, to obscure Japanese misdeeds in its Pacific Territories, vanished in the early afternoon, EST, of December 7, 1941.
In the classification on the bottom of the first page, it’s either marked “Derivative” if it is classified by a specific document, such as a Security Classification Guide. If the originator of the document has original classification authority, then the document will be marked, “Reason” followed by the numerical-alphabetic sentence or paragraph cited in the Executive Order for Classifying information.
And that is where they will screw it up.
The answer is out there............................
If she and her co-pilot made it to the island then they were eaten by the crabs there. The kind of crabs that climb trees and crack open coconuts. It would not have been a easy death.
First I laughed then I knew you’d respond. There are expert men and women drivers.
My wife of 45 years is a great driver.
I’m a better one because I’ve had 3 driver’s education courses. Speeding. But importantly, driver education, left, right, pay attention, basics but important.
She looks left & right but looks right last thing before she turns left.
For the gals - sorry but ... no - I’ve seen you ... countless times ...
The thing is if you’re rushing to work (not you) applying your makeup - a thing guys rarely do in the car - then things can happen. Just sayin’. ;-)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.