Amelia Earhart’s Missing Plane Might Have Been Found

And now, a group called Deep Sea Vision, which has been searching diligently for Earhart’s Lockheed Electra 10E in the Pacific Ocean, may finally have the answer. 

During her incredible life, Earhart was the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She also received several awards, was an accomplished writer, and fought for equal rights for women in the United States.

She broke several records for speed and altitude, but even more importantly, she was an inspiration to women around the world that they could truly do whatever men could do. Which, at the time, was a groundbreaking thought.

She and her navigator, Fred Noonan, planned their trip meticulously and the first 22,000 miles went exactly according to plan. In fact, when Earhart and Noonan and their aircraft went missing, they only had 7,000 miles left.

She and Noonan were due to land on Howland Island 18 hours and 2,500 miles later for more fuel, but they never appeared. 

Of course, they focused their search between Lae and Howland Island, but when they found nothing, they expanded the search as far as they possibly could. However, a year and a half after the fuel stop in New Guinea, they finally stopped looking and declared both Earhart and Noonan as dead. 

And while the US government stopped looking years ago, one organization called Deep Sea Vision has made it their mission to finally find the missing plane. 

They have been hoping that the drone, called the Kongsberg Discovery HUGIN 6000, would enable them to finally find Earhart’s Lockhead 10-E Electra on the ocean floor.

And they’ve since reported that just thirty days after their search began, the high-tech drone “captured a fuzzy sonar image of an object the size and shape of an airplane resting some 5,000 meters underwater within 100 miles of Howland Island.”

Now, they plan to head back toward where the drone captured the image that looks suspiciously like Earhart’s plane. They’re planning to send down a camera to collect evidence to support their theory before, eventually, maybe dragging the plane up from the deep. 

And he continued to explain that while he’s “optimistic” this may actually be Earhart’s plane, he and his team are not “saying [they] definitely found her.” However, Romero also added that he “[feels] like a 10-year-old going on a treasure hunt.”

But if they can find out why she crashed during the second to last leg of her around the world voyage, a mystery almost 100 years in the making may finally be solved.