Archive · 6 Oct 2026
Expedition Searches Nikumaroro Lagoon for Earhart’s Missing Plane
Amelia Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, vanished while flying across the Pacific in 1937.
People still do not know where their plane went.
A new team is going to an island called Nikumaroro to investigate something in a lagoon that looks like it might be part of an airplane.
They will use cameras, sound equipment and tools that can detect metal.
If they find promising evidence, they may remove some of the mud covering it.
Other researchers are not sure the object is plane wreckage.
Some believe Earhart’s plane may instead lie near Howland Island, where she was trying to land.
The expedition hopes its investigation will help answer the mystery.
Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared over the Pacific in July 1937 during their attempted around-the-world flight.
A team from Purdue University and the Archaeological Legacy Institute plans to investigate a suspected aircraft-shaped object in Nikumaroro’s lagoon.
The lead comes from satellite images taken after a 2015 cyclone changed features on the island and lagoon.
The team plans to use drones, magnetometers and sonar, and may dredge sediment if early findings support the search.
Researchers disagree: Rick Gillespie doubts the object is wreckage, while Dorothy Cochrane believes the plane was lost near Howland Island.
- Who
- A 17-person team from Purdue University and the Archaeological Legacy Institute, led by Rick Pettigrew, is investigating the possible wreckage of Amelia Earhart’s aircraft.
- What
- The team plans to examine an anomaly in a lagoon that may be the remains of Earhart’s Lockheed Electra.
- When
- The expedition was scheduled to depart on Saturday; the articles do not specify a date.
- Where
- Nikumaroro, an uninhabited island in Kiribati.
- Why
- To determine whether the suspected lagoon object is Earhart’s missing aircraft and help resolve her disappearance.
Nikumaroro search
Skeptical and alternative explanations
What the lagoon object is
Nikumaroro search
Rick Pettigrew and the Archaeological Legacy Institute say satellite images show an object of the right size and reflective appearance to be aircraft wreckage.
Skeptical and alternative explanations
Ric Gillespie says the object looks like an uprooted pandanus tree, and that silt at the location is only a few inches deep. He also says TIGHAR searches there in 2001 and 2007 found nothing.
Where Earhart’s plane ended up
Nikumaroro search
Pettigrew’s expedition is investigating the possibility that the aircraft reached Nikumaroro and is buried in the lagoon.
Skeptical and alternative explanations
Dorothy Cochrane argues Earhart could not have flown the roughly 640 kilometers from near Howland to Nikumaroro with little fuel remaining, and believes the plane lies near Howland. Gillespie believes it sank after being washed over Nikumaroro’s reef and was broken apart or buried.
Evidence of a castaway on Nikumaroro
Nikumaroro search
The Nikumaroro theory draws on artifacts found by TIGHAR and historical reports of human remains discovered on the island in 1940.
Skeptical and alternative explanations
Cochrane says the items cited as castaway evidence could have come from other visitors or the island’s former settlement; the remains were lost during the Pacific war.
- Disappearance
- Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared in July 1937.
- Flight route
- They departed New Guinea on July 2, 1937, heading toward Howland Island.
- Expedition team
- A 17-person team from Purdue University and the Archaeological Legacy Institute.
- Search location
- A suspected object in the lagoon off Nikumaroro’s Taraia promontory.
- Satellite lead
- Images taken after a 2015 cyclone showed a possible fuselage-and-wings outline in shallow water.
- Planned methods
- Drone photography, magnetometers and sonar; hydraulic dredging may follow positive initial results.
- Alternative location
- Dorothy Cochrane believes the aircraft may lie on the seabed near Howland Island.