Search for Amelia Earhart's missing plane ends with discovery of washed-up trees

The 17-member team traveled to Nikumaroro, an uninhabited atoll in Kiribati, to investigate a mysterious elongated object first identified in satellite imagery in 2020.

Researchers had hoped the object, known as the Taraia Object, might be the remains of Earhart's Lockheed Electra 10E aircraft, which disappeared in 1937 during her attempt to fly around the world with navigator Fred Noonan.

However, Purdue University, which helped fund the expedition, said the apparent wreckage was most likely a collection of large trees deposited along a sandspit by ocean currents.

A reflective surface previously interpreted as metallic was actually caused by a carbonate coating formed naturally from coral sand.

A mystery nearly 90 years old

Earhart and Noonan disappeared on July 2, 1937, while flying from New Guinea toward Howland Island in the Pacific.

One theory suggests they ran out of fuel and crashed into the ocean. Another holds that they landed on or near Nikumaroro and survived temporarily as castaways.

Previous expeditions to the island uncovered objects including a woman's shoe dating to the 1930s and fragments of a cosmetics jar, but none have conclusively established that Earhart landed there.

The latest expedition spent four days investigating the island after a five-day sea journey. Researchers used metal detectors, sonar and a magnetometer to search for aircraft wreckage.

The team also faced an unusual obstacle: giant coconut crabs inhabiting the island, which partly forced researchers to sleep aboard their ship offshore.

"Unfortunately, we weren't able to find that smoking gun," said Steve Schultz of Purdue University.

The unsuccessful search follows another false lead in 2024, when an aircraft-shaped object detected on the ocean floor turned out to be rocks.

Despite the disappointment, researchers say the mystery remains unresolved, and further searches are being planned.