Particle.news
Download on the App Store
8 ARTICLES
·
18h ago

Purdue-Led Nikumaroro Earhart Search Postponed to 2026

Permit delays in Kiribati during the cyclone season forced a 2026 reschedule.

Amelia Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, pose in front of their twin-engine Lockheed Electra in Natal, Brazil, June 18, 1937, during their flight around the world.
A receiver and other components identical to the radio system used by Earhart and Noonan have been restored by Nauticos to replicate the communications between Earhart's plane and the Itasca Coast Guard vessel that was waiting for her on Howland Island.
Pilot Amelia Earhart poses for a portrait in and airplane in circa 1936. (Photo courtesty Library of Congress/Getty Images)
Artifacts found on Nikumaroro that TIGHAR believes may have been connected to Earhart. (From top left) A jar similar in style to that of Dr. C.H. Berry's Freckle Ointment. Earhart was known to have been concerned about her freckles; fragments of red material chemically consistent with an early 20th century cosmetic; a broken-apart knife, similar to a knife listed in the Electra's inventory; a shattered glass bottle. The bottle design was patented on May 30, 1933, according to TIGHAR research.

Overview

  • A joint team from Purdue University, the Purdue Research Foundation and the Archaeological Legacy Institute delayed a planned Nov. 4 departure from Majuro to examine the lagoon “Taraia Object” on Nikumaroro.
  • The team reports additional Government of Kiribati approvals are still pending, and the approaching South Pacific cyclone season closes the safe operating window for late 2025.
  • Plans call for site documentation, magnetometer and sonar scans, then dredging and lifting the object to assess whether it is Earhart’s Lockheed Electra 10-E.
  • The anomaly appears in satellite imagery from 2020 and in 1938 aerial photos, though TIGHAR’s Ric Gillespie argues prior checks found nothing consistent with aircraft wreckage.
  • Organizers highlight multilayer permitting and unresolved artifact curation and ownership issues; a revised schedule is expected after cyclone season, with the earliest window not before April 2026.