A Purdue University-backed expedition searching for Amelia Earhart’s missing Lockheed Electra 10-E has ruled out a suspected wreckage site on Nikumaroro Island in the South Pacific. According to a Purdue announcement released Monday, researchers determined that an object identified in satellite imagery was likely a collection of large trees deposited along a sandspit in the island’s lagoon.
Suspected Wreckage Identified
The 17-member expedition focused on the so-called Taraia Object, an unusual shape first identified in satellite imagery in 2020. By the time researchers reached the site, much of the debris had broken apart or washed away, leaving a Y-shaped fragment. Investigators determined that its reflective appearance, previously believed to indicate a metallic surface, resulted from a carbonate coating.
“I think we accomplished our goal completely,” expedition leader Rick Pettigrew told National Geographic. “The hypothesis has been tested, and the results are in.”
Search Continues
Despite ruling out the suspected wreckage, the team recovered several other artifacts, including a steel tube approximately 30 inches long. Researchers plan to examine the findings to better understand how objects move through the island’s lagoon and accumulate along the Taraia Peninsula. Severe weather interrupted operations and extended the expedition to seven days near Nikumaroro, including four days spent ashore.
Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared July 2, 1937, while attempting to reach Howland Island during their round-the-world flight. The latest expedition was based on the theory that the pair landed on Nikumaroro’s reef and subsequently became stranded.
Ric Gillespie, co-founder of The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, had previously questioned whether the suspected wreckage was an aircraft, suggesting it was a fallen tree. Although investigators have now ruled out the Taraia Object, Purdue says it remains committed to continuing the search.
Earhart’s Lockheed Electra, the one Purdue University bought for Earhart in 1937 at the urging of George Putnam, her husband, is down there but way deeper than aerial or satellite imagery can see it. Fred Noonan’s bones may be in it. The Island was called Gardner Island back then. Earhart should have been found and recued based on all the distress calls she made from the Electra before it washed off the coral reef some of which were heard in the CONUS. Incompetence prevented her rescue.
On July 9, 1937, 7 days after Earhart disappeared, three Vought O3U‑3 floatplanes launched from the battleship USS Colorado and conducted an aerial search of Gardner Island as part of the Navy’s wider effort to locate Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan. The pilots saw no people or wreckage or other sign on the beach. I have to believe that had either survived they would have left some visible sign for all to see from a low and slow flying aircraft. Noonan was trained by Pan Am in water ditching and survival at sea and some of that would have translated into survival on land.
TIGHAR has explained why those flights did not see anything, details in TIGHAR’s books.
Note that Earhart was on radio several times after her disappearance, triangulation by experts showed transmissions were from near Gardner Island.
Well, Purdue plans to spend more money looking in the lagoon. Gets PR I suppose, from its modest connection to Earhart.
Expeditions to the island are costly, ship trip is long, sonar is costly, …
I recommend TIGHAR’s recent books detailing its conclusions and its evidence.
http://www.tighar.org explains its belief they landed on the reef on one side of the island, several days later a storm washed the airplane into deep water. TIGHAR spent much on sonar but hasn’t afforded to go deep enough down slope.
TIGHAR maintains that plane sat on the reef for several days and that there were even radio transmissions. Several days is plenty of time to salvage aluminum panels, seat cushions, control cables, fabric, batteries, reflective metal, etc., * ANYTHING useful and put it on the beach or a place visible to searchers.
It didn’t look metallic. It looks like a Pandanus tree, which is what is was. They were told that before they went, but spent the money anyhow.