Al-Amn Magazine

The reason: several radio signals received in the days following Earhart’s disappearance indicated that she and her navigator Fred Noonan may have been stranded there. Colonial officials also reported finding human bones, women’s shoes and pieces of metal on the island - evidence that researchers interpreted as possible traces of the aviation pioneer. The organization TIGHAR (The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery) consolidated this evidence into a plausible hypothesis: Amelia Earhart made an emergency landing on Nikumaroro, was stranded there and ultimately died. During expeditions between 1989 and 2019, TIGHAR discovered aluminum fragments, cosmetic bottles, tool parts and the remains of campfires - all circumstantial evidence, but no proof. But even the famous oceanographer Robert Ballard, discoverer of the Titanic, finds no further traces of the plane in a large-scale deep-sea mission in 2019. But the fascination with the case remains unbroken. New hope in the Earhart mystery It was not until 2023 that the search got underway again: the US company Deep Sea Vision published a sonar image from a depth of around 4800 meters that could show the fuselage of Amelia Earhart’s Lockheed Electra 10E. The Taraia expedition While the discovery of Deep Sea Vision is still awaiting confirmation, Purdue University in the USA, together with the American Archaeological Legacy Institute (ALI) and the TIGHAR organization, is pursuing a second, scientifically documented trace: the so-called Taraia object in the lagoon of the South Sea atoll of Nikumaroro. If the suspicion is confirmed, it would be a scientific sensation: the satellite images could show the remains of Amelia Earhart’s plane. The mystery appears The object came to the attention of researcher Michael Ashmore, who first spotted it on an Apple Maps satellite image in 2020. As a result, the Archaeological Legacy Institute, funded by private donors, procured 26 additional satellite images from 2009 to 2021 and three additional Google Earth images from 2022 to 2024. In these images, the object first becomes visible on April 27, 2015 - shortly after the devastating tropical storm Pam, which hit the region in March 2015. Pam is said to have been one of the strongest hurricanes ever recorded in the South Pacific. The storm surge uprooted trees on Nikumaroro and washed sediment into the lagoon. The Taraia object, which had previously been hidden under sand, was presumably uncovered in the process. The structure was most clearly visible in 2015 and 2016; from 2020 it became blurred again and seems to have been covered by a thin layer of sediment since then. First visual indications as early as 1938 In addition to the satellite images, researchers also identified the object in drone images from July 2017. Furthermore, aerial photographs taken by the New Zealand military in 1938 already showed a conspicuous shape under water at the same location. Particularly remarkable: These observations support the theory that the Taraia object could indeed be the remains of Amelia Earhart’s Lockheed Electra 10E. The size and shape match the fuselage and tail of the aircraft, and the highly reflective material indicates a metallic surface. The object is also located in a place where, according to oceanographers, currents and wind could have actually washed a drifting wreck from the Tatiman Passage into the lagoon. Expedition with a 90 per cent chance of success Now the researchers want certainty. On November 4, 2025, archaeologist Richard Pettigrew sets off for the remote island of Nikumaroro with a team of 14 experts. He is convinced that Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan were stranded there after an emergency landing - 400 miles from their actual destination, Howland Island. Pettigrew speaks of a 90 per cent chance of finally finding the wreckage of the legendary plane. “We have a lot of evidence - but we won’t know until we get there and look at it,” he told the Baltimore Sun. Using the latest sensor and photographic technology, the researchers want to document the Taraia object and check whether it really is Earhart’s Lockheed Electra 10E. If the suspicions are confirmed, a second mission to recover the object will follow. Despite numerous skeptics, Pettigrew is sticking to his conviction: The mystery surrounding Amelia Earhart, one of the greatest mysteries in aviation history, could be solved soon. bluewin.ch