New search for Amelia Earhart's plane finds only debris, not wreckage
A satellite detail near Nikumaroro had raised hopes of a possible wreck, but searchers say the mystery is still open.
Global News Podcast · France halts protests with curfew crackdownA new expedition to find Amelia Earhart's missing plane found only debris, not wreckage, on a remote Pacific island.
A team of 17 people traveled to Nikumaroro, a coral reef island about halfway between Australia and Hawaii, after researchers believed satellite images showed a possible object near a spot called the Teria Peninsula.
Ric Pettigrew of the Archaeological Legacy Institute said the object was not Earhart's Electra aircraft but most likely a pile of accumulated debris.
Earhart had already flown 22,000 miles when she left Papua New Guinea with navigator Fred Noonan in 1937 in a bid to be the first woman to circle the globe by air, with just 7,000 miles still to fly. After almost 90 years, theories include a crash at sea and survival as castaways, but there is still no final answer.
Questions people ask
Where was Earhart trying to go when she disappeared?
She had taken off from Lae in Papua New Guinea and was headed for Howland Island, a tiny refueling stop in the central Pacific. That leg was one of the longest and most difficult stretches, flown largely over open water with limited navigation aids. She never reached it.
Why do searchers keep looking at Nikumaroro?
Nikumaroro, then known as Gardner Island, lies southeast of Howland Island along the line where Earhart's last radio signals suggested she might have flown. Searchers have long wondered whether she and Noonan landed on its reef flat and survived for a time as castaways. No airplane wreckage has ever been confirmed there.
What kind of plane was she flying?
She was flying a Lockheed Model 10 Electra, a twin engine aircraft modified with extra fuel tanks for long distance flight. It was one of the most advanced private planes of its time. The added range still left little margin for error on Pacific crossings.