Sea exploration team claims to have found Amelia Earhart's lost plane
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South Carolina: Deep Sea Vision (DSV), a South Carolina-based deep-sea exploration firm, claims to have uncovered a sonar image that may depict the wreckage of Amelia Earhart's plane.
The legendary American aviatrix disappeared over the Pacific Ocean in 1937 while attempting a groundbreaking round-the-world flight alongside navigator Fred Noonan.
The sonar image was captured after an extensive search west of Earhart's intended destination, the remote Howland Island, using unmanned underwater submersibles at a depth of 16,000 feet (5,000 meters) with side scan sonar. DSV's CEO, Tony Romeo, stated that the image "reveals contours that mirror the unique dual tails and scale of her storied aircraft."
The prevailing theory suggests that Earhart and Noonan ran out of fuel, leading to the ditching of their twin-engine Lockheed Electra near Howland Island during one of the final legs of their historic journey.
The newly discovered image aligns with the belief that Earhart attempted a gentle water landing.
The exploration team, working with the "Date Line theory" proposed by Liz Smith in 2010, spent 90 days scouring 5,200 square miles (13,500 square kilometers) of the Pacific Ocean floor, surpassing all previous search efforts combined. The "Date Line theory" suggests Noonan may have miscalculated celestial star navigation due to a westward navigational error caused by forgetting to adjust the calendar over the International Date Line.
DSV has not disclosed the exact location of the find but plans to continue search efforts.
Amelia Earhart, famed for being the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic in 1932, embarked on her ill-fated global journey on May 20, 1937. Despite numerous theories and speculations, her disappearance remains one of aviation's mysteries.
