Expedition to a remote Pacific island fails to find fresh clues in hunt for Amelia Earhart’s plane

A recent expedition to a remote South Pacific island to search for wreckage from Amelia Earhart’s lost plane has come up empty. Researchers said Monday they found “no conclusive evidence” that the famed aviator landed her Lockheed 10E Electra aircraft on or near the small atoll south of the original pit stop of her ill-fated flight nearly 90 years ago. The trek to the suspected site, Nikumaroro Island, was a joint effort led by the Eugene, Oregon-based Archaeological Legacy Institute and Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, with the 17-person team of researchers and technicians arriving on the island on October 12. The main goal was to examine a blurry object known as the Taraia Object in a lagoon first detected in satellite imagery in 2020. Team leader and archaeologist Rick Pettigrew, believed the plane-shaped figure was wreckage from Earhart’s craft. However, the expedition “found no conclusive evidence to confirm a hypothesis that wreckage” from Earhart’s plane was “in a lagoon on a remote atoll in the South Pacific,” Purdue University said in a news release.

A recent expedition to a remote South Pacific island to search for wreckage from Amelia Earhart’s lost plane has come up empty. Researchers said Monday they found “no conclusive evidence” that the famed aviator landed her Lockheed 10E Electra aircraft on or near the small atoll south of the original pit stop of her ill-fated flight nearly 90 years ago. The trek to the suspected site, Nikumaroro Island, was a joint effort led by the Eugene, Oregon-based Archaeological Legacy Institute and Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, with the 17-person team of researchers and technicians arriving on the island on October 12. The main goal was to examine a blurry object known as the Taraia Object in a lagoon first detected in satellite imagery in 2020. Team leader and archaeologist Rick Pettigrew, believed the plane-shaped figure was wreckage from Earhart’s craft. However, the expedition “found no conclusive evidence to confirm a hypothesis that wreckage” from Earhart’s plane was “in a lagoon on a remote atoll in the South Pacific,” Purdue University said in a news release.

A recent expedition to a remote South Pacific island to search for wreckage from Amelia Earhart’s lost plane has come up empty. Researchers said Monday they found “no conclusive evidence” that the famed aviator landed her Lockheed 10E Electra aircraft on or near the small atoll south of the original pit stop of her ill-fated flight nearly 90 years ago. The trek to the suspected site, Nikumaroro Island, was a joint effort led by the Eugene, Oregon-based Archaeological Legacy Institute and Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, with the 17-person team of researchers and technicians arriving on the island on October 12. The main goal was to examine a blurry object known as the Taraia Object in a lagoon first detected in satellite imagery in 2020. Team leader and archaeologist Rick Pettigrew, believed the plane-shaped figure was wreckage from Earhart’s craft. However, the expedition “found no conclusive evidence to confirm a hypothesis that wreckage” from Earhart’s plane was “in a lagoon on a remote atoll in the South Pacific,” Purdue University said in a news release.

THE TAKEAWAYA 17-person joint-effort crew arrived at Nikumaroro Island to begin investigating the Taraia Object, believed to be Amelia Earhart's plane. Research crews will conduct biological and environmental surveys. The next phase will use sonar to detect objects beneath the lagoon floor sediment. NIKUMARORO, Kiribati – The search for Amelia Earhart’s crashed plane is entering a new phase as the Taraia Object expedition team travels to the island where researchers believe she may have disappeared. This comes after satellite imagery revealed an object off the coast of Nikumaroro Island, leading researchers to believe it could be Earhart’s aircraft. A 17-person joint effort crew, part of the Taraia Object Expedition Team, Archaeological Legacy Institute, Purdue Research Foundation and Purdue University, arrived on the island on Monday to begin investigations of the visual anomaly, known as a Taraia Object, which is a commonly used name for a visual anomaly in the lagoon of Nikumaroro Island.10 PLACES IN THE US WITH A HAUNTED HISTORY TO VISIT IF YOU DAREThe Taraia Object was first located in 2020, but has been in the same spot since 1938, about 10 feet from the lagoon's shore.

FOOD & DRINKMonday, October 19, 2026 6:59PMKayem Foods is recalling 1.5 million pounds of ready-to-eat products, including hot dogs, because they may have been stored at unsafe temperatures. Food Safety and Inspection ServiceNEW YORK -- Kayem Foods is recalling more than 1.5 million pounds of ready-to-eat food products because they may have been stored at unsafe temperatures. The recall includes dozens of products sold under a variety of brand names nationwide. The items include hot dogs, deli meats, cocktail franks, corned beef, bacon, chicken sausage and more. Food Safety and Inspection ServiceThe products were shipped to retail and food service locations around the country. They were produced between approximately March 31 and Oct. 7 of this year. So far there have been no confirmed reports of illness. If you purchased any of the products, do not eat them. Throw them away or return them.

The 40 elected members of the Quebec Liberal Party (PLQ) will be sworn in at the elegant Red Room of the National Assembly on Monday afternoon. On Oct. 5, the PLQ more than doubled its representation by retaking several ridings in Montreal, Laval, Outaouais, Montérégie and Estrie.