Amelia Earhart Search on Pacific Atoll Ends With Trees, Not Plane

A U.S. expedition to a remote Pacific atoll has ruled out its latest lead in the search for Amelia Earhart, concluding that an object thought to be her missing plane was a clump of washed-up trees. The Guardian

Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan vanished in 1937 during an attempt to circumnavigate the globe at the equator. They were en route to Howland Island when their plane ran low on fuel and disappeared. Howland Island is about 400 miles north of Nikumaroro.

Nikumaroro is in Kiribati, about halfway between Australia and Hawaii, and has emerged as a leading candidate for where Earhart and Noonan may have crash-landed. Previous visits to the atoll found signs of a castaway camp, a 1930s-era woman's shoe, and glass from a cosmetics freckle cream jar attributed to Earhart.

The latest mission was prompted by 2020 satellite images showing an elongated, white object in the shallows near the Taraia Peninsula. Richard Pettigrew, who heads the nonprofit Archaeological Legacy Institute, identified aerial video showing what he suspected was a metallic glint in the water.

The 17-person expedition, led by Purdue University, conducted four days of research on Nikumaroro, including metal detecting, after a multi-day voyage by ship and delays due to bad weather. Field operations had paused near the island after severe weather, and the crew was forced to sleep offshore partly due to massive land-dwelling coconut crabs known as "robber crabs." The effort cost $900,000 and faced a six-day return boat journey, according to an earlier report. Reuters

Purdue University stated the "visual anomaly" was likely a collection of large trees deposited along the peninsula's sandspit. The university said the object's reflective surface was due to its carbonate veneer, and other items were coated with a shiny concretized amalgam of coral sand. Purdue University

Steve Schultz of Purdue University said the expedition was not able to find "that smoking gun" on Nikumaroro. Purdue said the search for Earhart's plane continues after the expedition ruled out the latest hypothesis.

The trip was partially sponsored by Purdue University in Indiana, where Earhart once taught and which helped fund her modified Lockheed Electra 10-E known as her "flying laboratory."