posted 12-18-2010 06:34 PM               

Newly reported evidence adds support to the claim that famed aviator Amelia Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, spent the last days of their lives on Nikumaroro Island in the southwest Pacific Ocean, seen here from more than 400 miles up...

Now TIGHAR [The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery] says it has recovered bone fragments from a remote area of Nikumaroro that may have come from a human. DNA tests to be conducted in Oklahoma could confirm whether the bones were indeed of human origin or instead came from a sea turtle. There's even a chance the bones could be genetically linked to Earhart.

posted 12-19-2010 08:29 PM               

Some years ago, they claimed she and Noonan landed there evidence was the bottom of a shoe and a bill bottle cap.

The fact that the island has had many visitors over the years since in 1937, In particular during WW2 is something they choose to ignore.

posted 10-07-2026 09:24 AM               

Earhart expedition update: Crew arrives at Tarawa, prepares for departure

Fourteen members of the Taraia Object expedition — the Archaeological Legacy Institute, Purdue Research Foundation and Purdue University's joint expedition to explore a Pacific island lagoon for Amelia Earhart's missing plane wreckage — arrived Tuesday (Oct. 6) at Tarawa, Kiribati, the expedition's staging area. After linking up with the expedition's three Kiribati representatives on Tarawa, the team is now complete and ready to begin the sea voyage to Nikumaroro, a remote atoll halfway between Australia and Hawaii.

The team arrived at approximately 10 a.m. local time following a flight from Nadi, Fiji, where they had spent a day on briefings and training activities. Tarawa is 16 hours ahead of Eastern time in the United States. Team members spent their first day in Tarawa managing logistics, checking equipment and meeting with officials of the Kiribati National Shipping Line ahead of their planned departure at 3 p.m. local time on Wednesday (Oct. 7).

"Even today, given its sheer vastness, there's something significant to flying over the Pacific Ocean," said Sirisha Bandla, expedition member, Purdue alumna and member of the Cradle of Astronauts. "As we finally arrived at our point of departure here in Tarawa, it struck home that we'd flown over a majority of the portion that Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan were attempting to traverse when they were lost. Now we hope to have a chance to bring closure to their story."

"Moving a team of this size — and with this much equipment — halfway around the world is a huge logistical feat," said Steve Schultz, Purdue's senior vice president and general counsel. "Even when you think you've done enough planning and preparation, everything has to fall into place once you're underway. The amazing thing is that it has been a series of small victories. Customs, logistics and other details we've sweated over for months now all came together in rapid succession over the past three days."

Next, the crew will depart Tarawa, by sea, for the longest leg of their journey to Nikumaroro in the Phoenix Islands of Kiribati. The team will sail six days and is expected to arrive at Nikumaroro on Oct. 13 and then spend the following days on the small island in the search effort.

The expedition is being supported by Columbia Sportswear, DHL Express, Fiji Airways, Kiribati National Shipping Line, the Niswonger Foundation, Bulova and RECON Offshore, along with additional organizations providing financial, operational, logistical, technical, philanthropic, diplomatic and in-kind support, including Alvantor, Arrants Expeditions, Brownie's Third Lung, Forestry Suppliers, GreenGood Labs, The Museum of Flight, the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation, Randolph USA, and Tricor.

posted 10-16-2026 07:36 PM               

Earhart expedition update: Crew arrives onshore, sets up operations on Nikumaroro

Members of the Taraia Object expedition, a joint effort between the Archaeological Legacy Institute, Purdue Research Foundation and Purdue University, made it ashore Nikumaroro on Tuesday (Oct. 13), where they began setting up equipment and operations for their investigation into an anomaly that could be what remains of Amelia Earhart's Lockheed Electra 10-E.

Through the Amelia Earhart Fund for Aeronautical Research, the Purdue Research Foundation funded Earhart's Lockheed Electra "Flying Laboratory." Earhart intended for the plane to be returned to Purdue upon completion of her round-the-world flight.

It was the first day onshore for the 17-person expedition team, who arrived too late Monday (Oct. 12) to visit the island after five days of sea travel. As the sun rose, some crew members took smaller transport boats from the Marin Mainiku into the lagoon. The remaining team members set up staging areas and cleared a path to support fieldwork that will begin Wednesday (Oct. 14).

After many years since the last expedition to the island, the traditional path to the lagoon, nicknamed the "Gallagher Highway," was heavy with undergrowth and coconuts underfoot. Supported by crew members from the Marin Mainiku, the team used a combination of machetes and hand chain saws and finished cutting a trail to the lagoon within two hours. At least four coconut crabs were encountered along the way, but they posed no threat to the operation.

Though the team expected to spend an entire day setting up operations, the work was accomplished by lunchtime. The joint team, composed of expedition members and the vessel crew, was able to access the Taraia Peninsula by 1 p.m. local time. Nikumaroro is 17 hours ahead of Eastern time in the U.S.

At the peninsula, the team walked the sandspit to look for artifacts in the first phase of terrestrial archaeology work. A series of canopy shelters was erected and sandbags were filled. The first components of the tech system were erected, and the maritime archaeology team assessed the conditions of the research site, including the sediment on the lagoon floor.

Operations were wrapped up by 4 p.m., and the expedition team retraced its steps to the south side of the lagoon and back through the Gallagher Highway to the beach at the head of the "blasted channel," a man-made opening near the southwestern corner of the island's perimeter reef. There, they were picked up by the vessel's transport boat and carried through large swells back to the Marin Mainiku, where they retired for the evening.

posted 10-19-2026 02:53 PM               

Search for Amelia Earhart's plane continues after Taraia Object expedition on Nikumaroro rules out latest hypothesis

The Taraia Object expedition, a joint effort by the Archaeological Legacy Institute (ALI), Purdue Research Foundation and Purdue University, announced Monday, Oct. 19, local time that it found no conclusive evidence to confirm a hypothesis that wreckage from Amelia Earhart's Lockheed Electra 10-E was in a lagoon on a remote atoll in the South Pacific. Nikumaroro is 17 hours ahead of Eastern time in the U.S.

Evidence gathered at the Taraia Peninsula on Nikumaroro confirmed that the visual anomaly first seen in satellite imagery in 2020 was likely a collection of large trees deposited along the peninsula's sandspit. By the time the team arrived at the site, a good portion of the debris had fragmented and washed away, leaving only a single Y-shaped segment — a fraction of the anomaly's original size observed in imagery when the Taraia Object hypothesis was developed.

The fragment's reflective surface, long associated with the idea that the object was a metallic substance, was due to its carbonate veneer. Other items found by the team were similarly coated with a shiny concretized amalgam of coral sand.

"Amelia Earhart's spirit of courage and curiosity drove every step of the search," said Rick Pettigrew, ALI's executive director. "We accomplished our goal to determine what the Taraia Object was, and we're deeply grateful to the private donors who shared our vision and made this journey possible. Our team remains in great spirits and proud of what was accomplished."

On July 2, 1937, Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan left Lae, Papua New Guinea, on the third-to-last leg of her round-the-world flight attempt, and were heading to Howland Island, about 400 miles northwest of Nikumaroro, when the pair disappeared. The U.S. launched one of the largest air-sea searches in history, spending two weeks scouring an area of the Pacific Ocean roughly the size of Texas.

Earhart's Lockheed Electra, affectionately known as her "Flying Laboratory," was purchased with funds from the Purdue Research Foundation. Earhart intended to return the plane to Purdue upon completion of her flight.

"Perhaps no words better capture this expedition than Amelia Earhart's own: 'Adventure is worthwhile in itself,'" said Steve Schultz, Purdue general counsel and expedition member. "We set out to test a hypothesis, not to guarantee a particular result, and we followed the evidence to the end. While the Taraia Object did not prove to be what we hoped, the journey produced new discoveries, added to the world's knowledge of Nikumaroro, and wrote another extraordinary chapter in a story of discovery and exploration."

The Taraia Object expedition did find numerous artifacts through both maritime and terrestrial archaeology efforts, including a steel tube about 30 inches long discovered in the lagoon near the Taraia Peninsula. Those discoveries will continue to be studied as they may provide additional evidence for a core premise behind the Taraia Object hypothesis: Objects entering the lagoon through the Tatiman Passage, the atoll's natural channel to the Pacific on its western side, can travel across the lagoon and become deposited along the Taraia Peninsula, which functions as a catchment area directly opposite the passage.

While the expedition did not uncover the "smoking gun" connecting Earhart to Nikumaroro, the team reiterated its collective belief in the broader castaway hypothesis. Developed by The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery since the 1980s, the theory holds that Earhart and Noonan did not crash into the sea, but rather landed on the reef flat of the remote atoll and were marooned there.

Making a compelling case for the castaway hypothesis is a large body of evidence based on documentary records, photographs and satellite images, physical artifacts, and personal testimony, including these highlights:

• Radio bearings recorded from transmissions at the time by the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Coast Guard and Pan American World Airways, which converge on Nikumaroro

• A 2018 analysis of human bones discovered on the island in 1940, strongly suggesting they belong to a woman of Earhart's stature

• Artifacts found on Nikumaroro including a woman's shoe, a compact case, a freckle cream jar and a medicine vial — all dating to the 1930s

• The Bevington Object, a photographic anomaly on the Nikumaroro reef captured three months after the plane's disappearance, which appears to represent the Electra's landing gear

The Taraia Object expedition launched from Tarawa in the Republic of Kiribati on Oct. 6. The team traveled five days by sea to Nikumaroro. The expedition was extended due to weather, with the crew spending seven days near Nikumaroro, including four days onshore setting up field operations and conducting investigative work.

Though the team did not find the wreckage, the mission only deepens the resolve, and adds a new chapter, in the quest to find the ultimate answer to the mystery of what happened to Earhart and Noonan during their attempt to circumnavigate the globe nearly nine decades ago.

Purdue University, where Earhart served as a pioneering counselor and mentor to young women, has pledged to continue the search. During her tenure, Earhart helped shape the university's aviation program and inspired generations through her advocacy and trailblazing spirit. Long recognized as one of the nation's premier institutions for training pilots, aviation managers and aerospace professionals, Purdue continues to honor Earhart's enduring impact.

"Amelia Earhart never gave up — she kept pushing boundaries and flying into the unknown," Schultz said. "That same fire fuels our search. She kept flying, and we will keep searching."

The Taraia Object expedition team included:

• Rick Pettigrew, ALI, project director
  
• Steve Schultz, Purdue general counsel, field assistant
  
• Laura Kennedy, ALI, technology specialist
  
• Philippa Jorissen, ALI, terrestrial archaeologist
  
• Ren LaRocca, ALI, assistant
  
• Sirisha Bandla, Purdue alumna, technology specialist
  
• Marc Hagle, Purdue alumnus, field assistant
  
• Meere Kenana, curator, Kiribati Culture and Museum, Kiribati representative
  
• Agnes Naare, Ministry of Line and Phoenix Islands Development, Kiribati representative
  
• Heidi Boraia-Tangata, Ministry of Line and Phoenix Islands Development, Kiribati representative
  
• Michael Krivor, RECON Offshore, maritime archaeologist
  
• William Wilson, RECON Offshore, maritime archaeologist
  
• Aaron Arrants, medic and safety officer
  
• Helmut Schleppi, filmmaker
  
• Ella Van Cleave, filmmaker
  
• David Pearson, filmmaker
  
• Matt Maddaloni, filmmaker

The expedition was supported by Columbia Sportswear, DHL Express, Fiji Airways, Kiribati National Shipping Line, the Niswonger Foundation, Bulova and RECON Offshore, along with additional organizations providing financial, operational, logistical, technical, philanthropic, diplomatic and in-kind support, including Alvantor, Arrants Expeditions, Brownie's Third Lung, Forestry Suppliers, GreenGood Labs, The Museum of Flight, the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation, Randolph USA and Tricor.