Sonar may have found Amelia Earhart’s long-lost aircraft 16,000 feet underwater, the exploration team believes

The disappearance of Amelia Earhart 87 years ago over the central Pacific Ocean is still one of aviation history’s biggest mysteries. In the decades that have passed, several speculations concerning her whereabouts have surfaced, but now, a deep-sea exploration team looking for her little plane’s wreckage may have discovered another piece of information.

The sonar image that Deep Sea Vision, a company headquartered in Charleston, South Carolina, claimed to have taken this week in the Pacific Ocean “appears to be Earhart’s Lockheed 10-E Electra” aircraft.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Deep Sea Vision (@deep.sea.vision)

The business claims to have scanned more than 5,200 square miles of the ocean floor beginning in September. Sonar photos that seem to depict a plane-shaped object sitting at the bottom of the sea were shared on social media by the company. Video of the 16-person team’s search was also made public. During the search, they employed an advanced underwater drone.

Pilot and former intelligence officer for the United States Air Force Tony Romeo told the Wall Street Journal that he sold up his commercial real estate holdings to raise the $11 million needed for the hunt.

Related Story: Is Amelia Earhart’s aircraft actually still missing or found? Six essential things to be aware of

He told the Journal, “I think this is the most thrilling thing I’ll ever accomplish in my life.” “I feel like a kid embarking on a treasure hunt,” the speaker said. 

In an effort to become the first female pilot to circle the world, Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan vanished on July 2, 1937, while over the Pacific Ocean. Their disappearance without a trace sparked the biggest and most costly search and rescue operation in American history by the U.S. Coast Guard and Navy. Two years later, Earhart and Noonan were pronounced deceased.

Over the years, several deep-sea searches employing cutting-edge equipment have attempted, but failed, to locate Amelia Earhart’s plane.

Romeo told the Journal that the aircraft-shaped item was photographed by his team’s undersea “Hugin” submersible at a depth of around 16,000 feet in the Pacific Ocean, fewer than 100 miles from Howland Island, where Amelia Earhart and Amy Noonan were expected to refuel before going missing.

Romeo told the Journal that his crew didn’t discover the image until almost three months into the journey, and that by then it was too late to turn around. As a result, they plan to go back for a deeper examination.

Only a deeper inspection for features matching Earhart’s Lockheed aircraft would yield conclusive evidence, sonar specialists told the Journal.

Underwater archaeologist Andrew Pietruszka told the newspaper, “There’s no way to determine for sure what that is until you physically take a look at it.”

About Earhart’s disappearance, there are numerous possibilities. Researching Amelia Earhart’s tragic journey for decades, Ric Gillespie told CBS News in 2018 that he found evidence that she crashed-landed on Gardner Island, which is approximately 350 nautical miles from Howland Island, and that she had been calling for assistance for over a week prior to her plane being carried out to sea.

In addition to the Navy, Gillespie informed CBS News that several individuals who unintentionally received Amelia Earhart’s broadcasts on their radios thousands of miles distant also heard the calls. People in Texas, Florida, and Iowa have all reported hearing calls for assistance. A Canadian lady claimed to have heard a voice that said, “We have ingested water. We are running out of time.”

Related Story: Missing Titanic Submersibles: How do they communicate, and what may have gone wrong with the missing Titanic sub?

The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, led by Gillespie, has also said that it discovered forensic evidence on the island that it believes to be Earhart’s bones.

Even still, after searching for debris for over nine decades, Romeo believes his team’s sonar scan may have finally located the long-lost aircraft.

Romeo told the Journal that his flying knowledge brought a new perspective to the hunt. Two of his brothers are also pilots, and they accompanied him on the excursion.

Romeo stated to the press, “We always assumed that a group of pilots were going to solve this, and not the seafarers.”

Source:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/amelia-earhart-plane-possibly-detected-sonar-underwater-deep-sea-vision/

---