17 marine archaeologists have sailed out into the Pacific, heading for Nikumaroro. They have to find out if objects seen on satellite images can solve a historical mystery.
A team of marine archaeologists from the United States hopes to be closer to the answer to one of the most captivating mysteries of the 20th century:
The disappearance of the famous pilot Amelia Earhart in 1937.
The team of marine archaeologists has set sail for the small, remote island of Nikumaroro in the western Pacific.
Here they must try to find out if an object under the sea surface that has been seen on satellite images in the island’s lagoon six years ago is the wreckage of Earhart’s Electra 10-E plane.
If it turns out to be the case, the team will be able to prove a hypothesis that Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, crashed on or around the island and perished while stranded there.
The team is supported by Purdue University, which has long been concerned with Earhart and her legacy.
The group of archaeologists left Los Angeles in the US earlier this month and are expected to arrive on the uninhabited island, part of the island nation of Kiribati, on Tuesday.
– That would be solving one of aviation’s great mysteries. It is indeed one of the great mysteries of the 20th century, says Steve Schultz, who is part of the expedition and head of legal affairs at Purdue University.
Amelia Earhart took off from Papua New Guinea on July 2, 1937 as part of an attempt to be the first woman to fly around the world. She was supposed to have landed on Howland Island – about 640 kilometers from Nikumaroro – to get fuel on the plane.
But radio contact with her plane ceased after she took off. Earhart had radioed that there was not much fuel left. Her disappearance sparked the largest search for an airplane ever conducted by the US government.
The US government’s official position is that the Electra plane ran out of fuel and crashed near Howland Island.
