They thought they had found the wreckage of American aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart’s plane at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, but Deep Sea Vision explorers announced that their image released in January ultimately showed only a crude “rock formation.”
Deep Sea Vision at that time published a blurry sonar image, captured by an underwater robot, that appeared to reveal the contours corresponding to the unique model of the plane of the aviator who disappeared almost a century ago.
“After 11 months, the wait is finally over and unfortunately our target was not Amelia’s Electra 10E, but just a natural rock formation,” the marine exploration company announced on its Instagram account.
An aviation mystery
With her navigator Fred Noonan, Amelia Earhart took off on May 20, 1937 from Oakland, California, to become the first woman to fly around the world, five years after being the first woman to cross the Atlantic alone.
But the two disappeared on July 2 after taking off from Lae, Papua New Guinea, on a grueling 4,000 kilometer flight. They were supposed to refuel at Howland Island, but never got there.
This disappearance remains one of the most intriguing mysteries in aviation history and has given rise to dozens of books, films and more or less crazy theories. The prevailing hypothesis holds that Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan experienced fuel shortages and abandoned their twin-engine Lockheed L-10 Electra near Howland Island.
Despite its failure, Deep Sea Vision announced that it would continue its investigations, extending them “over almost 20,000 km².” “The intrigue continues and no evidence of its disappearance has ever been found,” the company writes.
“Let us know what you think: Did you run out of fuel near Howland Island?” asks Deep Sea Vision.
Source: BFM TV
