I follow all things D.B. Cooper and Amelia Earhart because I’ve got issues. But this is super exciting!
Some dude sitting at home during the pandemic stared at images on Apple Maps and found the above object in shallow water off the Taraia Peninsula in a lagoon on Nikumaroro Island (formerly Gardner Island). He brought it to the attention of a Purdue group that investigates Earhart material. They determined that the image was from 2015-2016, after a cyclone had passed through the area and likely stirred up and moved a lot of sediment in the lagoon.
Nikumaroro Island is 400 miles from Howland Island, which was to be Earhart’s stop, but it was along the southeast course she was thought to be flying when she couldn’t find the Coast Guard ship Itasca, sent to coordinate her refueling. Many thought that her plane was lost at sea. Over the years, airplane metal, a woman’s shoe, and some bones were found on Nikumaroro. There was speculation that Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan survived at least briefly on the island. Rescue crew flew over the island about a week after her disappearance, but found nothing. The island was uninhabited at the time of her transglobal flight in 1937 but had residents shortly thereafter and into the 1960’s. Multiple expeditions have been to the island without finding anything conclusive.
Researchers have pulled up multiple images of the above site including from 2001 and a blurry one from 1938 indicative of an object in the same location. It’s pretty compelling! Great video from the investigators here.
An expedition is going next month to check it out. If it looks like they’ve found the plane, subsequent efforts will be made at recovery.