Earhart Expedition Finds Trees, Not a Plane, at Remote Pacific Atoll

An expedition to a remote Pacific atoll has found no sign of Amelia Earhart's missing plane. Researchers said Sunday that an object seen in satellite images was most likely a collection of large trees washed onto a sandspit, according to CBS News and NBC News.

The team, from Purdue University and the Archaeological Legacy Institute, still says its findings support the theory that Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, landed on the island and were stranded. The expedition did not produce proof of that theory.

How the search for Earhart's plane reached Nikumaroro

• July 2, 1937: Earhart and Noonan disappear during an attempt to fly around the world along the equator. CBS reported they were roughly 22,000 miles into the trip. NBC reported that a U.S. Coast Guard ship lost contact with them that morning as they tried to reach Howland Island.
• 1938: Aerial photos taken this year show the object later known as the Taraia Object, according to CBS. No one noticed it at the time.
• 2020: A Navy veteran spots the anomaly in satellite imagery during the COVID pandemic, CBS reported. The Guardian reported that other longtime Earhart explorers quickly identified it as a fallen tree. Richard Pettigrew, who heads the Archaeological Legacy Institute, found other images, including aerial video, that he believed showed a metallic glint in the water.
• 2024: A different expedition captured what appeared to be an aircraft on the ocean floor. It was later identified as a rock formation, according to CBS.
• October 2026: The Taraia Object expedition sets out. NBC reported it launched from Tarawa in Kiribati on Oct. 6 and spent five days at sea reaching Nikumaroro. CBS gave Oct. 14 as the launch date, so reports differ on the departure date.

What the team found on the ground

The Guardian reported that a 17-person team got through the coral-encircled atoll and set up tents for research that included metal detecting. CBS reported that severe weather kept the group aboard its ship for three of the five days allotted. Limited fuel and supplies prevented an extension.

The researchers said the object was likely a group of large trees left along the sandspit of the Taraia Peninsula. By the time the team arrived, much of the debris had broken apart and washed away. Only a Y-shaped segment remained, which NBC described as a small fraction of the anomaly's original size in the satellite images.

The shine that suggested metal came from a carbonate veneer, according to the researchers. They said other items nearby were coated in a similar hard layer of coral sand. Before the trip, the team had said in a news release that it had very strong evidence the object was Earhart's plane, CBS reported.

“Unfortunately, we weren’t able to find that smoking gun,” Steve Schultz of Purdue told the Guardian. Pettigrew said in a statement: “We accomplished our goal to determine what the Taraia Object was.”

What the expedition says it did find

According to NBC, the team reported finding numerous artifacts through maritime and land archaeology. They included a steel tube about 30 inches long found in the lagoon near the Taraia Peninsula, which will be studied further. The team also pointed to items found on the island, including 1930s glass bottles and a woman's makeup compact, as indications the plane may have landed there.

The Guardian noted that earlier visits to the uninhabited atoll turned up signs of a castaway camp, a 1930s-era woman's shoe and glass from a cosmetics freckle cream jar. Pettigrew believes Earhart and Noonan landed on Nikumaroro and survived there for some time. He cites relics from the 1930s and human remains found on the island that were later lost. CBS reported that several competing theories about the disappearance exist, many without conclusive evidence.

Why it matters: a mystery stays open

For readers following one of aviation's best-known mysteries, the result removes one candidate for the plane's location. It does not settle what happened to Earhart. The Guardian noted the trip adds to a list of dismissed hypotheses, including that she was captured by Japanese forces or lived under an alias.

The search was funded in part by private donors, according to Pettigrew, and partly sponsored by Purdue. The Guardian reported that Earhart once taught at the Indiana university and mentored young female pilots there. It also helped fund her modified Lockheed Electra 10-E.

In a statement, Purdue acknowledged the disappointment but said the mission adds a new chapter to the effort to learn what happened. Schultz said the team will keep searching. NBC reported the steel tube will be studied further, and the sources did not give a date for another expedition.

Sources: CBS News, NBC News, The Guardian