Purdue University’s expedition to determine if the so-called Taraia Object on Nikumaroro is in fact Amelia Earhart’s long-lost plane, which was postponed due to bureaucratic hurdles last year, has reached the remote island last Monday. Purdue set out the goals of the expedition as follows:

Expedition members will rendezvous at Tarawa, Kiribati, on Oct. 6 and depart by sea the next day for Nikumaroro in the Phoenix Islands of Kiribati. The team will sail six days to arrive at Nikumaroro and then spend the following days on the small island in the search effort. Work on Nikumaroro will focus on inspecting the Taraia Object, first noticed in satellite imagery in 2020 and later confirmed to be visible on aerial photos taken of the island’s lagoon as far back as 1938. Initial work will include videos and still images of the site prior to any disturbance, followed by remote sensing with magnetometers and sonar. Then the team will employ underwater excavation using a hydraulic dredge to expose the object for identification. Fieldwork will include a walk-over survey of nearby land surfaces to search for debris washed up by waves.

On Wednesday, the expedition crew had started their underwater survey of the object, but then, bad weather prevented further work for three days and the expedition was extended. In a YouTube short posted Saturday night (Sunday morning local time) an expedition crew member explains that the weather has cleared up and that the work can now begin again. So we are awaiting news really any time now as to the actual nature of the Taraia Object. Is it Amelia Earhart’s plane? The suspense is killing me here!

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