NEED TO KNOW
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A new research trip to a desert island in the South Pacific may reveal what happen to Amelia Earhart in 1937
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Researchers will visit Nikumaroro in November to investigate the Taraia Object, a visual anomaly believed to be remnants of Earhart’s plane
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Some everyday items found near the site on the uninhabited island include a woman’s shoe, a medicine vial and a makeup bottle from the 1930s
Some everyday objects found on a desert island in the Pacific Ocean may help researchers discover what really happened to Amelia Earhart.
The ground-breaking aviator, who set out to become the first woman to fly around the world in 1937, vanished about a month into her global journey.
On July 2, 2025, the 88th anniversary of Earhart’s disappearance, the Purdue Research Foundation and Archaeological Legacy Institute (ALI) announced a joint effort to find the pilot’s missing aircraft. The research trip will visit the Pacific island of Nikumaroro in November 2025 to investigate the Taraia Object, a visual anomaly some believe to be remnants of Earhart’s plane.
Through documentary records, photos, satellite images, physical evidence and personal testimony, researchers developed the Nikumaroro hypothesis — the idea that Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, landed on an uninhabited island instead of crashing at sea.
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Ameila Earhart
Some of the evidence found includes everyday objects believed to have belonged to Earhart: a woman’s shoe, a compact case, a medicine vial and a bottle of freckle concealer.
“She had freckles,” senior NBC correspondent Tom Costello said during a segment about the mission on TODAY on July 2. “So [there’s] a lot of evidence that in fact Amelia Earhart and her navigator crash landed on this remote island.”
According to earlier reporting by NBC, the jar found is “identical in shape” to a bottle of Dr. C. H Berry’s Freckle Ointment, which promised to make freckles fade, sold in the early 20th century.
The researcher who discovered it told the outlet, “It’s well documented Amelia had freckles and disliked having them.”
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Nikumaroro island in the South Pacific
Additional evidence pointing to Nikumaroro includes three recorded radio transmissions converging near the island.
“What we have here is maybe the greatest opportunity ever to finally close the case,” Richard Pettigrew, ALI’s executive director, said in a press release. “With such a great amount of very strong evidence, we feel we have no choice but to move forward and hopefully return with proof. I look forward to collaborating with Purdue Research Foundation in writing the final chapter in Amelia Earhart’s remarkable life story.”
The expedition will begin on Nov. 5, departing from Majuro in the Marshall Islands for Nikumaroro, which is about halfway between Australia and Hawaii. Reachers will spend five days on the island inspecting the Taraia Object and will return to port on Nov. 21.
But some experts are still skeptical. Ric Gillespie, an author who’s written about Earhart’s disappearance, claims the new expedition won’t find anything.
“We’ve looked there, in that spot,” he told TODAY of his 12 expeditions to the South Pacific. “There’s nothing there.” Of the object thought to be her plane, he says “the [satellite] imagery shows a coconut tree, complete with root ball.”
Though, Pettigrew says it isn’t an easy find.
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“People walking over the beach, or being very close to it, they still wouldn’t have seen it,” Pettigrew told TODAY. “It would’ve been covered by sediment and under the water.”
If the crews are successful in identifying and locating the aircraft, a second expedition will commence in 2026 to excavate what remains.
Read the original article on People
