Purdue Expedition to Nikumaroro Seeks Earhart Wreck

Purdue University and the Archaeological Legacy Institute will mount a 15-person, roughly three-week expedition to Nikumaroro in early November to investigate a lagoon visual anomaly called the Taraia Object, which researchers say offers very strong evidence it could be Amelia Earhart’s missing Lockheed Electra 10E. The feature was identified in 2020 satellite imagery and appears in aerial photos dating to 1938; the team plans to document the site with cameras, magnetometers and sonar and to dredge and lift the anomaly for identification. The crew will stage from Purdue’s Amelia Earhart Terminal, fly to Majuro and then sail roughly 1,200 nautical miles to Nikumaroro, with departures around Oct. 30–Nov. 4 and a planned late-November return. ALI executive director Richard Pettigrew and Purdue officials say confirming wreckage on Nikumaroro would be the 'smoking-gun proof' that Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan ended their flight there and could allow recovered parts to be returned to Purdue, where Earhart once worked. The expedition follows renewed attention after President Trump ordered declassification of Earhart files and comes amid decades of competing theories and prior false leads, including a 2024 sonar claim later attributed to natural features; researchers caution they could be wrong but say the accumulating multifaceted evidence makes this their best chance yet to solve the 1937 disappearance.