Published : 19 Oct 2026, 09:56 PM
Updated : 19 Oct 2026, 09:56 PM
A US expedition searching for the missing aircraft of pioneering aviator Amelia Earhart has found that an object initially suspected to be plane debris was a cluster of washed-up trees, the Guardian reports.
The 17-member team travelled to Nikumaroro, a remote atoll in the Pacific island nation of Kiribati, after satellite images and aerial footage appeared to show a reflective object in shallow waters.
Researchers spent four days surveying the area, including using metal detectors, but found no conclusive evidence of Earhart’s aircraft.
Purdue University, which helped fund the expedition, said the object was likely a collection of large trees deposited along a sandy peninsula. The apparent metallic glint was caused by a mineral-rich coating formed from coral sand, the Guardian reported.
“We weren’t able to find that smoking gun,” Steve Schultz of the university said after the search.
Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan vanished in 1937 while flying around the world, with Nikumaroro among the suspected crash sites in the enduring aviation mystery.
Earlier expeditions found a 1930s-era woman’s shoe and cosmetics jar fragments, fuelling speculation that a castaway had lived on the atoll, according to the report.
The latest expedition faced bad weather and difficult conditions, with the crew sleeping offshore partly because of large coconut crabs on the island.
Although the findings have disappointed researchers, Purdue University said the mission added another chapter to the search for answers about Earhart’s disappearance, the Guardian noted.
Earhart was the first woman to fly solo nonstop across the Atlantic. Theories that she was captured by Japanese forces or survived under another identity remain disputed.
