Image: Deep Sea Vision
In 1937, Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan set off on a quest to circumnavigate the globe. Having completed most of their journey, Earhart’s plane disappeared over the central Pacific Ocean near Howland Island.
In the intervening 87 years, neither of their bodies nor their plane have been definitively recovered — remaining a compelling mystery and generating countless theories as to what may have happened.
Recently, a high-tech unmanned underwater drone, operated by Deep Sea Vision, an ocean exploration company based in South Carolina, surveyed more than 5,200 square miles of ocean floor between September and December. The drone captured compelling sonar images of what could be Earhart’s Lockheed Electra aircraft at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.
NPR reports that the team spotted the plane-shaped object between Australia and Hawaii, about 100 miles off Howland Island, where Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, were supposed to refuel but never arrived.
The shape of the object in the sonar images closely resembles Earhart’s aircraft, both in size and tail. Deep Sea Vision founder, Tony Romeo, said he was optimistic in what they found.
“All that combined, you’d be hard-pressed to convince me that this is not an airplane and not Amelia’s plane,” he said.
The Deep Sea Vision team plans to investigate the area where the images were taken some time this year, Romeo added.
The aircraft is at a depth of about 16,400 feet. By comparison, the Titanic is located at a depth of about 12,500 feet. Deep Sea Vision said its 16-member crew used an an advanced underwater drone to scan more than 5,200 square miles of ocean floor in search of the aircraft.