World
Amelia Earhart search ends empty-handed: suspected plane wreckage was a clump of trees
October 19, 2026 at 05:27 AM
A US expedition to a Pacific atoll said the object suspected to be Amelia Earhart's lost plane was a clump of washed-up trees.
- Purdue University confirmed the "Taraia Object" spotted in 2020 satellite imagery in Nikumaroro's lagoon was likely large trees deposited along a sandspit.
- The 17-person expedition, led by Purdue and the Archaeological Legacy Institute, arrived on the Kiribati atoll on October 12 for four days of research.
- Archaeological Legacy Institute head Rick Pettigrew said evidence for the castaway hypothesis that Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan landed on the island remains strong.
- Steve Schultz of Purdue said researchers could not find the "smoking gun" linking the debris to Earhart's Lockheed Electra.