Ocean exploration company Deep Sea Vision announced over the weekend that they allegedly captured sonar images of what could be claimed as the aircraft of legendary American aviatrix Amelia Earhart at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.
The discovery was made possible by a high-tech unmanned underwater drone and a 16-member crew, which surveyed over 5,200 square miles (13,467.94 square kilometers) of ocean floor in the final months of 2023, NPR reported.
The plane-shaped object was allegedly found about 100 miles (259 kilometers) off of Howland Island between Australia and Hawaii. The island was supposed to be the pitstop and refueling station of Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan, but they never arrived.
On July 2, 1937, Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan took off from Papua New Guinea, nearing the end of their record-setting journey around the world never to be seen again. Until today.
— Deep Sea Vision (@DeepSeaVision) January 27, 2024
Deep Sea Vision found what appears to be Earhart’s Lockheed 10-E Electra. pic.twitter.com/CTVDI6Jxpg
Deep Sea Vision Boss Confident They Found Earhart's Plane
The shape of the object in the sonar images closely resembled Earhart's aircraft, a Lockheed Electra. Deep Sea Vision founder Tony Romeo said that he was optimistic about what they found during the scan.
"All that combined, you'd be hard-pressed to convince me that this is not an airplane and not Amelia's plane," he said.
After an extensive deep-water search, a talented group of underwater archaeologists and marine robotics experts have unveiled a sonar image that may answer the greatest modern mystery — the disappearance of Amelia Earhart. pic.twitter.com/qxDXg9n05R
— Deep Sea Vision (@DeepSeaVision) January 30, 2024
Romeo, a pilot and former US Air Force intelligence officer, added that his team planned to investigate the area where the images were taken later this year.
He sold his real estate company's assets to establish Deep Sea Vision to become one of many oceanic detectives attempting to locate Earhart's plane.
Earhart and Noonan vanished in 1937 while on a quest to circumnavigate the globe. If it went successfully, it would have made Earhart the first female pilot to fly around the world.
Their bodies are yet to be found.
