Researchers Sail to Nikumaroro in Earhart Search

A Purdue University-backed team of marine archaeologists has departed for Nikumaroro, a remote atoll in Kiribati, to investigate a submerged object spotted in satellite imagery in the island’s lagoon six years ago. The researchers hope it is the wreckage of Amelia Earhart’s Lockheed Electra, which could support the theory that Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan crash-landed near the atoll in 1937 and died there. The expedition, led by Archaeological Legacy Institute head Richard Pettigrew, plans to search beneath the lagoon; a 17-person crew was reported to have reached Tarawa before continuing by boat to Nikumaroro. The search has skeptics, including veteran Earhart researcher Ric Gillespie, who has led multiple expeditions to the atoll.