Purdue's plan to find Amelia Earhart's plane
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A research team supported by Purdue University is spending its summer preparing for a fall expedition to bring Amelia Earhart's long-lost aircraft home.
Why it matters: The disappearance of the iconic Boilermaker and her plane, the Electra, on July 2, 1937, remains one of the aviation world's most captivating mysteries.
- But this team says it may have cracked the code.
Driving the news: On the 88th anniversary of Earhart's disappearance, Purdue Research Foundation (PRF) and the Archaeological Legacy Institute (ALI) announced a joint effort to recover the Electra from Nikumaroro Island in the South Pacific.
- The operation will confirm whether a visual anomaly seen in satellite imagery in the island's lagoon is actually the remains of the aircraft.
- Nikumaroro is approximately halfway between Australia and Hawaii.
What they're saying: "What we have here is maybe the greatest opportunity ever to finally close the case," Richard Pettigrew, ALI's executive director, said in a statement. "With such a great amount of very strong evidence, we feel we have no choice but to move forward and hopefully return with proof."
Flashback: Purdue president Edward Elliott recruited Earhart to work at Purdue in 1935 after growing concerned that women enrolled at the university were not completing their studies.
- Earhart lived in the then-new women's residence hall, served as a counselor and advised Purdue's aeronautical engineering department.
- Earhart planned to give the Electra to Purdue for further scientific research after piloting it to set a record for the longest-distance flight, but she never returned.
Zoom in: The team is working on "a vast amount of circumstantial evidence" collected over the past 40 years that supports the idea that Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, did not crash at sea as originally believed.
- Instead, they think the pair landed and ultimately perished on the uninhabited island.
- Among the evidence is a 2017 analysis of human bones discovered on the island in 1940 that determined Earhart's bone lengths were more similar to the discovered remains than 99% of individuals, supporting the conclusion that they belong to her.
What's next: The expedition is slated to embark from Majuro in the Marshall Islands on Nov. 5, spend five days on Nikumaroro inspecting what they believe are pieces of the plane, and return to port on Nov. 21.
- ALI will share project updates on its subscription video platform, Heritage Broadcasting Service.
- If the initial expedition is successful, PRF and ALI plan to return for larger excavation efforts next year.