Purdue University, the Archaeological Legacy Institute and partners are preparing to travel to Nikumaroro in Kiribati to inspect the Taraia Object, a lagoon anomaly that researchers believe may be debris from Amelia Earhart’s Lockheed Electra 10E. The field expedition is due to begin in early October and will focus on shallow water near the Taraia Peninsula, using drones, sonar, magnetometers and, if needed, underwater excavation.
The object was identified from satellite imagery and later linked by researchers to older aerial images, with some material suggesting the same feature may have been visible as far back as 1938. It appears reflective, partly buried by sediment and roughly consistent in size and shape with parts of an aircraft fuselage and tail.
Rick Pettigrew leads the expedition team, which includes Purdue and Purdue Research Foundation personnel alongside archaeological and logistics support. The mission is intended to establish whether the anomaly is linked to Earhart’s aircraft rather than recover wreckage outright, and remains a search effort rather than a confirmed discovery.
If the object proves to be part of the Electra, it would provide the strongest physical evidence yet for the Nikumaroro theory, one of the most persistent explanations for Earhart’s disappearance in 1937.