Amelia Earhart search on Nikumaroro finds tree debris, not plane
What's new: Researchers said a shiny lagoon object first seen in 2020 satellite images was likely washed-up trees coated with reflective carbonate.
A new expedition to Nikumaroro in Kiribati failed to uncover Amelia Earhart's missing plane, after researchers determined a lagoon object once thought to be wreckage was most likely tree debris. Purdue University and the Archaeological Legacy Institute said the so-called Taraia Object, identified in 2020 satellite imagery, had broken apart before the team reached the site, leaving a Y-shaped fragment. Its metallic-looking sheen came from a carbonate coating, not aircraft material. The group spent days reaching and then searching the remote island, where some researchers believe Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan may have crash-landed in 1937 after departing Lae, Papua New Guinea, en route to Howland Island.