Has Amelia Earhart’s plane been found?

Amelia Earhart, the renowned American aviation pioneer, and her navigator Fred Noonan disappeared without a trace 87 years ago while attempting to circumnavigate the globe over the Pacific Ocean.

The mystery of their disappearance has fueled numerous theories over the years.

In a recent development, Tony Romeo, a former U.S. Air Force intelligence officer and CEO of Deep Sea Vision, believes he may have found the answer to the long-standing mystery.

Romeo, who funded an $11 million deep-sea expedition, announced in January 2024 that his team had discovered what appears to be Earhart’s Lockheed 10-E Electra.

The search, launched in September 2023 from Tarawa, Kiribati, near Howland Island, utilized advanced technology, including the Kongsberg Discovery HUGIN 6000, described as the most advanced unmanned underwater drone.

The crew scanned over 5,200 square miles of the ocean floor, capturing a sonar image resembling the shape of an airplane about 100 miles from Howland Island.

While there is excitement surrounding the potential discovery, questions remain about the debris’s connection to Earhart’s crash. Tony Romeo expressed confidence in the finding, noting that there are no other known crashes in the area, especially of the same era and design as Earhart’s Lockheed 10-E Electra.

Despite the optimism, the process of confirming the wreckage’s identity and planning its recovery poses challenges. The crew intends to return to the site for further investigation.

If confirmed, the discovery could rewrite aviation history and potentially lead to the recovery and display of Earhart’s plane in a place like the Smithsonian, where it rightly belongs, rather than remaining hidden at the bottom of the ocean.