A mysterious object discovered near a remote Pacific island is not the wreckage of Amelia Earhart's missing plane, researchers said after an expedition to the site, dealing another setback to efforts to solve one of aviation's greatest mysteries nearly 90 years after the pilot disappeared.

 Evidence gathered at the Taraia Peninsula on Nikumaroro confirmed that the visual anomaly first seen in satellite imagery in 2020 was likely a collection of large trees deposited along the peninsula's sandspit,  the researchers said.  By the time the team arrived at the site, a good portion of the debris had fragmented and washed away, leaving only a single Y-shaped segment,  which they said is what they had initially hoped was the plane.

The researchers said the reflective surface of the anomaly, which had led them to believe it could be metal, was the result of a carbonate veneer, noting other items found nearby were  similarly coated with a shiny concretized amalgam of coral sand. 

On Oct. 14, a 17-member expedition team led by Purdue University's Steve Schultz and the Archaeological Legacy Institute's Richard Pettigrew launched an expedition to investigate a mysterious object that in aerial photos appeared to resemble possible wreckage of Earhart's Lockheed Electra 10-E plane.

Severe weather kept the research team aboard their ship for three of the five days allotted for the search, while limited fuel and supplies prevented them from extending the expedition. The search area was so remote, it took the team five days at sea to reach it.

The expedition focused on a lagoon off Nikumaroro, where researchers examined the Taraia Object, an anomaly spotted by a Navy veteran in satellite imagery during the COVID pandemic. Although visible in aerial photos dating back to 1938, the object went unnoticed until 2020. Pettigrew said before reaching it that they believed it could be metal rather than a tree, but further investigation was needed to confirm its identity.

A satellite image shows the Taraia Object in a lagoon on Nikumaroro Island. Rick Pettigrew, Archaeological Legacy Institute

 Amelia Earhar
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