Updated October 13, 2026, 10:57 a.m. ET
A 17-member team from Purdue University is currently searching a South Pacific island for Amelia Earhart’s Lockheed Electra 10E plane, which has been missing since the famous aviator disappeared during an attempted round-the-world flight nearly 90 years ago.
The expedition team arrived at the western end of the uninhabited island of Nikumaroro, Kiribati, on October 12. The group will explore a lagoon on the island in search of what may be the submerged remains of the plane, looking for what has been called the Taraia object in satellite images. They will use a hydraulic dredge to carefully remove sediment from the object, which researchers believe could be the Electra.
The most recent expedition is the 20th organized search for the plane. It is led by the Archaeological Legacy Institute and Purdue University.
Nikumaroro Island is part of the Phoenix Islands of Kiribati. It is a coral atoll in the Pacific located about 350 miles southeast of Howland and about 2,100 miles southeast of Hawaii.
Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan were flying over the central Pacific near Howland Island when they disappeared on July 2, 1937. Despite extensive searches by the U.S. Navy and others, they were never found.
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The aviators were flying east from Lae, Papua New Guinea, in an attempt to reach Howland Island, a tiny piece of land smaller than New York’s Central Park, located between Australia and Hawaii.
On the day Earhart disappeared, the Coast Guard Cutter USCGC Itasca was waiting near Howland to refuel the Electra after it landed. The ship received voice messages from Earhart as its signal increased. She said the plane was almost out of fuel.
Neither Earhart nor Noonan knew Morse code, so there was no two-way contact, according to the Smithsonian Institute’s analysis of government documents.
It is widely believed that Earhart ran out of fuel and crashed in the Pacific while searching for Howland. The US Navy reached this conclusion after 16 days of research in 1937.
However, sophisticated satellite imagery, radio transmissions and other discoveries have led some to hypothesize that Earhart and Noonan landed on Nikumaroro Reef. This theory says that the two men survived briefly as castaways and that the bus-sized plane was swept away by the sea.
Where did Amelia Earhart disappear to?
Nikumaroro’s theory is primarily associated with TIGHAR, the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, which has been studying the idea since 1988.
TIGHAR led a dozen expeditions to the island between 1989 and 2017. It says “all that remains of the Electra is in the deep waters off the western end of the island.”
Lockheed Electra could be submerged in a lagoon
What will the expedition do on Nikumaroro?
The group will spend several days at Nikumaroro, most of them in the lagoon, where they will use a hydraulic dredge to carefully remove sediment from what may be the Electra.
The team will attempt to locate the largest sections of the plane, the fuselage and wings. If they find rivets in the aluminum skin of an aircraft, a comparison of their spacing and geometry will make their identification easier.
If the ALI/Purdue team locates the Electra, it will not go inside but will return the following year for a full-scale search. Future efforts include removing the plane and other remains, which would be returned to the United States.
Steve Schultz, senior vice president at Purdue University, said the institution was discussing a deal with Kiribati, the island nation that controls Nikumaroro, to give Purdue custody of the wreck, USA TODAY reported.
Earhart’s connection to Purdue dates back to 1935, according to the university. She has served as a women’s guidance counselor and advisor to Purdue’s Department of Aeronautics. The Amelia Earhart Terminal is part of Purdue University Airport.
What clues led to Nikumaroro?
ALI/Purdue says the satellite imagery findings, known as the Taraia Object, were revealed in 2020, but photographs show it appears to have been in the same location in the lagoon since 1938. Other evidence includes:
- Radio bearings recorded from 1937 transmissions by the US Navy, US Coast Guard and Pan American World Airways converge on Nikumaroro.
- Human bones were discovered on the island in 1940. A 2018 analysis of bone measurements suggested they belonged to a woman of Earhart’s stature.
- Artifacts found at Nikumaroro included a woman’s shoe, a compact case, a jar of freckle cream, and a medicine bottle. All date from the 1930s.
- The Bevington Object, a photographic anomaly on Nikumaroro Reef captured three months after the Electra’s disappearance, appears to represent one of the plane’s landing gears.
What happened in the previous searches for Earhart?
In addition to the 12 TIGHAR expeditions, other research includes:
1937
- US Navy and Coast Guard
- Where was the research? The initial search focused on Howland Island. It extended west/northwest over the open ocean and southeast toward the Phoenix Islands, including Nikumaroro.
- How long: 16 days (July 2-18)
- Type: Search mainly on the high seas by ships and planes. Navy aircraft flew over the Phoenix group islands, but no ground searches were conducted.
- Square miles: 262 281
- How many ships were used? Seven U.S. government ships and Navy aircraft
- Result: No evidence of Earhart or the plane was found.
2019
- Robert Ballard and National Geographic
- Where was the research? Nikumaroro Island
- How long: 18 days (August 7 to 25, 2019)
- Type: The expedition mapped the seafloor around the island in search of the Electra.
- Square miles: 2,164
- How many ships were used? First, the E/V Nautilus research vessel and remotely operated vehicles
- Result: No wreckage of Electra or remains of Earhart have been found.
2023
- Deep sea vision
- Where was the research? 100 miles from Howland Island, approximately 16,000 feet underwater
- How long? September to December 2023
- Search type: Seabed survey
- Square miles: 5,200
- How many ships were used? A
- Result: Deep Sea Vision announced in January 2024 that it had discovered sonar images of a planar-shaped object on the seafloor. In November 2024, he declared the object to be a natural, planar-shaped rock formation.
Why was Amelia Earhart famous?
Earhart was already a well-known pilot when she and Noonan attempted the round-the-world flight. Among her achievements, she:
- Broke the women’s altitude record with 14,000 feet. flight (1922).
- Published his first book “20 hours, 40 minutes” (1928).
- Visit to President Calvin Coolidge at the White House (1928).
- Was the second person to make a non-stop solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean (1932).
- Was the first person to make a non-stop solo flight across the United States (1932).
- Was the first person to fly solo from Honolulu to Oakland, California (1935).
- Became visiting professor at Purdue University (1935).
Earhart was also friends with first lady Eleanor Roosevelt. On April 20, 1933, at a state dinner—President Franklin Roosevelt was not present—Earhart and Eleanor Roosevelt left the White House, drove to Hoover Field, and took an unscheduled flight to Baltimore.
Earhart is an enduring figure in American culture. The Postal Service issued an 8-cent U.S. postal stamp with her image on July 24, 1963, which would have been Earhart’s 66th birthday. Mattel offered the Amelia Earhart Barbie in 2018 as part of its Inspiring Women series.
LEGO offered its Amelia Earhart Tribute set in March 2021 in tribute to International Women’s Day. The red plane was Earhart’s Lockheed Vega 5B, which she flew solo across the Atlantic in May 1932. She flew from Harbor Grace, Newfoundland, to near Londonderry, Northern Ireland, in about 15 hours.
Earhart was the first woman and the second person after Charles Lindbergh to cross the Atlantic alone and non-stop. The Vega is on display at the Barron Hilton Pioneers of Flight exhibit at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum.
Source: USA TODAY Network reporting and research; Reuters; Purdue University
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