Explorer claims to have found Amelia Earhart’s plane

February 1, 2024 - The wreckage of Amelia Earhart’s long-lost plane has been found on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, around 5,000 metres beneath the surface, researchers believe.

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The announced is the latest to claim a breakthrough in the decades-old mystery. Founder of underwater exploration company Deep Sea Vision, Tony Romeo, a former U.S. Air Force intelligence officer, said a 16-person crew captured the image late last year during a 90-day expedition in search of Earhart’s aircraft

Over roughly three months, DSV’s HUGIN 6000 autonomous underwater submersible combed across a cumulative 13,400 square km of Pacific Ocean floor using a modified side scan sonar capable of imaging 1,600-metre-wide chunks at a time. Normal side scan sonars, by comparison, only handle 450 metres per scan.

Romeo said the images showed what appeared to be a plane matching the size of Earhart's Lockheed Model 10-E Electra.

Hoping to solve an 87-year-old mystery, explorer Tony Romeo plans to launch a mission later this year or next to find the long-lost plane, which a massive U.S. search failed to do in 1937.