Purdue launches effort to find Amelia Earhart’s lost plane
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The Purdue Research Foundation is partnering with the Archaeological Legacy Institute in an effort to locate Amelia Earhart’s lost aircraft and bring it back home.
The Taraia Object Expedition, a field team organized by the Oregon-based nonprofit, will visit the Pacific island Nikumaroro in November to confirm whether a visual anomaly known as the Taraia Object seen in satellite and other imagery in the island’s lagoon is what remains of Earhart’s plane, Purdue said in a news release.
The Purdue Research Foundation and others funded the “flying laboratory” Lockheed Electra 10E that Earhart later used in her attempt to circle the globe and set a record for the longest-distance flight. The aircraft disappeared on July 2, 1937.
“Both Earhart and her husband and manager, George Putnam, expressed their intention to return the Electra to Purdue after her historic flight,” Steven Schultz, senior vice president and general counsel of Purdue University, said in the release. “Based on the evidence, we agree with ALI that this expedition offers the best chance not only to solve perhaps the greatest mystery of the 20th century but also to fulfill Amelia’s wishes and bring the Electra home.”
Despite the whereabouts of the aircraft remaining unknown, a host of circumstantial evidence supports the Nikumaroro hypothesis, Purdue said. The idea suggests that Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, did not crash at sea but instead landed and were marooned on the uninhabited island, which is about halfway between Australia and Hawaii. The circumstantial evidence includes radio bearings at the time, bones discovered on the island, artifacts including a woman’s shoe and compact case dating to the 1930s, and the Taraia Object, which was located in 2020.
“What we have here is maybe the greatest opportunity ever to finally close the case,” Archaeological Legacy Institute Executive Director Richard Pettigrew said in the release. “With such a great amount of very strong evidence, we feel we have no choice but to move forward and hopefully return with proof. I look forward to collaborating with Purdue Research Foundation in writing the final chapter in Amelia Earhart’s remarkable life story.”
Earhart worked for Purdue University after Purdue President Edward Elliott became concerned that the women enrolled at the university were not completing their education, the news release said. He hired Earhart to live in the new women’s residence hall for a few weeks of the semester, serve as a counselor on careers for women, and advise Purdue’s aeronautical engineering department.
Earhart intended to give the plane to Purdue upon her return.
The Taraia Object Expedition plans to embark from Majuro in the Marshall Islands on Nov. 5, spend five days on Nikumaroro inspecting the Taraia Object, and return to port on Nov. 21. The Archaeological Legacy Institute plans to post project updates on its subscription video platform, Heritage Broadcasting Service.