A statue of American aviator Amelia Earhart at the Capitol in Washington on July 27, 2022 (Getty Images / Nathan Howard)
After nearly a century, the remains of American aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart’s plane may have been found on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, according to a marine exploration company that released sonar images Monday.
American company Deep Sea Vision (DSV) says the image was taken after an extensive search west of Holland Island, a deserted reef lost in the middle of the Pacific between Australia and Hawaii.
Along with her navigator Fred Noonan, Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly around the world from Oakland, California on May 20, 1937, five years after becoming the first woman to cross the Atlantic solo.
But the two disappeared on July 2 after taking off from Lai, Papua New Guinea, on a fateful 4,000 km flight. They were supposed to refuel at Howland Island, but never got there.
This disappearance has been one of the most intriguing mysteries in the history of aviation, spawning dozens of books, movies, and more or less far-fetched theories.
The prevailing hypothesis holds that Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan ran out of fuel and abandoned their twin-engine Lockheed L-10 Electra near Howland Island.
According to DSV, the blurry image captured by the company’s underwater robot “shows the contours corresponding to the unique twin tails and wings of its legendary aircraft.”
“We always thought that she would have done everything to try to land the plane gently, and the signature of the plane that we see in the sonar image suggests that this was the case,” DSV’s boss, Tony Romeo, said in a press release.
The company says it spent 90 days searching 13,500 km² of the sea floor and wants to keep the exact location of the discovery a secret for the moment…
