A Mysterious Image Was Supposed to Be Amelia Earhart’s Plane. Searchers Found Only an Illusion.

• In early 2024, the ocean exploration company Deep Sea Vision reportedly found what could be the remains of Amelia Earhart's lost plane.
• Research into the site has yielded disappointing results, revealing that the discovery was a rock outcropping.
• His response was, "I guess that's life."

The long-lost and legendary Lockheed 10-E Electra airplane that Amelia Earhart was flying, now rests deep in the Pacific Ocean.

After a closer look, Deep Sea Vision confessed that it didn't actually find the legendary plane that had gone missing for 86 years. Instead, they discovered a rock formation.

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The plane and its navigator, Fred Noonan, have not been seen since—but not for a lack of searching.

In January, he headed a 16-man team using the advanced Kongsberg Discovery HUGIN 6000 unmanned underwater vehicle to thoroughly search the ocean west of Earhart's expected landing site over a period of three months.

The sonar dives lasted nearly 48 hours each and produced multiple terabytes of data. A specific image caught Romeo's attention and at the time, he thought it showed "contours that matched the distinctive dual tails and scale" of Earhart's plane.

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Romeo might be disappointed by yet another dead end in the search for Earhart, but not many others will be surprised. So far, every search for Earhart, Noonan, or the plane has turned up very little useful information. And while many people still have high hopes that the next search will lead to something important, most experts are taking a wait-and-see approach.

It's extremely challenging to locate objects on the sea floor, even with all the advanced technology at our disposal.

The initially unclear image didn't yield much enthusiasm from sonar experts, but it was sufficient to prompt Romeo to investigate further—especially since it matched up with the part of the Date Line where the plane's disappearance was believed to have occurred.

Crashing into the ocean. Prior to Deep Sea Vision taking the helm, the area and scenario depicted by Smith's theory went uninvestigated.

We look forward to wrapping up a pivotal chapter in American history.

That will have to be put on hold.

What Happened to Amelia Earhart?

Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan's record-breaking journey around the world first captivated the world's imagination in 1937. They were well into their trip, having traveled six weeks and 20,000 miles, when they failed to make their scheduled landing at Howland Island, which is roughly 1,700 miles southwest of Honolulu.

There's no evidence to say where the plane went, which has led to many different ideas about what really happened to Earhart, Noonan, and their plane.

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The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery also suggests that a 2009 underwater image shows Earhart's plane's engine cowling lying in the water. However, pinpointing and verifying this claim is complicated without more information about the photo's location.

bravery, and all the remarkable feats that women could accomplish in the field of aviation.

Who Was Amelia Earhart?

She had to give up flying due to financial difficulties. Nevertheless, she relaunched her aeronautical career in 1927.

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An ambitious attempt to be the first person, regardless of gender, to travel around the world along the equator.

After an initial accident caused damage to her Lockheed on the Oakland to Hawaii leg, the aircraft was forced to return to California for repairs. This detour caused a change in plans because weather patterns and global wind patterns were shifting, so she took a revised route starting eastward from Oakland. This reversed the order of her journey, moving the Pacific Ocean to the end of the trip instead of the beginning.

They headed to Africa and then over the Indian Ocean. Eventually, they arrived in New Guinea after flying 22,000 out of the total distance of their planned route of about 29,000 miles.

Located off the coast of Howland Island—Earhart and Noonan were filled with confidence.

Their ability to navigate by the stars was thwarted, and Earhart and Noonan were banking on out-of-date charts that inaccurately labeled the location of Howland Island. It's also possible that the plane's radio antenna was damaged.

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Experts believe the plane likely crashed due to running out of fuel as it looked for a place to land, resulting in Earhart and Noonan's death at sea, which is attributed to "poor planning and even poorer execution."

We still can't definitively say anything, and Earhart's final adventure—despite initial hopes to the contrary—remains an unsolved mystery.