There is no earthly way this ...
...deteriorates into this...
...particularly after it's endured eight decades in the intertidal zone of a tropical island.
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.
“I could get on a plane TODAY”
***********
A couple of people and some instruments could get there for far less than the projected cost of $900K for the expedition. At least find out if the object is metallic before going all in.
That’s the kind of malicious compliance that I always find clever and funny! Good for you.
Wouldn’t have been FBI. Most likely ONI.
Probably TRUE!
Thanks. Makes sense.
There is no earthly way this ...
...deteriorates into this...
...particularly after it's endured eight decades in the intertidal zone of a tropical island.
Having never worked with classified material, is there a “reason sheet” attached which explains the status?
_____________________________________
It is way worse than you think. I wrote the Marine Corps position on this subject. It is so nerdy it hurts, so I called it a career and departed.
that’s a windmill
Found it again did they?
The ghost of aviation, she was swallowed by the sky
Or by the sea, like me, she had a dream to fly
Like Icarus ascending on beautiful foolish arms
Amelia, it was just a false alarm
Things are usually not declassified because they are lazy.
Usually not. There is supposed to be a "Review Date" associated with the file. Old files are boxed up and placed in warehouses, never to be seen again, let alone reviewed.
I don't recall ever seeing a classified document marked with the reason it was considered secret.
I think someone gave her the Electra. Nobody gave her a sea plane. Also, the Electra probably had a greater range than any seaplane at the time.
She might have made it, but unfortunately she tried to parallel park.
“I don’t recall ever seeing a classified document marked with the reason it was considered secret.”
Me neither. The content usually made it quite clear why it was classified. at least with technical stuff.
I might guess political crap is much more murky and arbitrary.
Nah, that MH370 thing that CNN was berserk over.
Our public servants lazy?
Say it ain't so Joe!
Nah, I don’t think so.
Amelia Earhart ping.
I listened to the 45 min presentation by the group from Purdue University that will be going out to Nikumaroro this November to research the site and do under water archeology. The object was first seen in photographs sometime in 2020. The presentation is mildly interesting, but not ‘must see.’
Cheers,
GreyFriar
Seems like I read somewhere that objects have been found on the island that could be from Amelia and Noonan - makeup case, bottles, things like that. Not proof, of course, but opens the possibility. If so they probably starved to death there - where’s the Professor with his coconut shell radio when you need him?
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