Expedition arrives on remote Pacific island to search for Amelia Earhart's lost plane

A research team has reached Nikumaroro Island to inspect an underwater object that may be the wreckage of Amelia Earhart's Lockheed Electra, missing since 1937.

• The 17-person expedition from the Archaeological Legacy Institute and Purdue University arrived Monday, the first authorized visit to the atoll in seven years.
• Expedition leader Rick Pettigrew said the crew will inspect the Taraia Object, first spotted in 2020 satellite imagery and possibly Earhart's plane.
• Tighar co-founder Ric Gillespie said the object is likely a dead pandanus tree, noting earlier metal-detector searches found nothing at the site.
• The crew will sleep aboard the ship nightly, kept off the island by nocturnal coconut crabs, the world's largest land-dwelling crustaceans.