A deep-sea exploration team, Deep Sea Vision, claims to have potentially detected Amelia Earhart’s long-lost plane using sonar at a depth of 16,000 feet in the Pacific Ocean. The team, based in Charleston, South Carolina, scanned over 5,200 square miles of the ocean floor and released sonar images and a video suggesting the presence of Earhart’s Lockheed 10-E Electra aircraft.
Photo of Amelia Earhart in 1935
The search was funded by Tony Romeo, a pilot and former U.S. Air Force intelligence officer, who sold commercial real estate properties to raise $11 million for the mission.
Earhart disappeared in 1937 while attempting to circumnavigate the globe, and her fate remains a longstanding aviation mystery.
The sonar image, captured by a submersible called “Hugin,” was found less than 100 miles from Howland Island, where Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan were supposed to refuel before disappearing. While sonar experts caution that a closer look is needed for definitive proof, the discovery has sparked renewed interest in solving the decades-old mystery.
In a previous article, we reported about bones found in 1940 that may be Amelia Earhart’s remains.