Purdue Team Returns To Hunt For Earhart Plane At Nikumaroro

Purdue University researchers are getting ready to leave again and hunt for Amelia Earhart's vanished plane out in the Pacific Ocean after earlier delays held them back. Officials recently stated that the team will head straight to Nikumaroro Island to look closely at something they call the Taraia Object. Some people think this satellite-imaged anomaly might actually be the missing Lockheed Electra. The whole mission, which the group calls the Taraia Object Expedition, is scheduled to depart on Oct. 7.

"This expedition seeks to help complete the historic journey that ended with her disappearance 89 years ago," university officials said in their latest update. If the team finally proves the Taraia Object is indeed Earhart's aircraft, they plan to start a full-scale archaeological dig next year once they get the right permissions. Trevor Peters, a Purdue spokesperson talking to Fox News Digital, shared that details about what happens to the wreckage are still being worked out with the Republic of Kiribati. Nothing is officially finalized yet, but both ALI and the Purdue Research Foundation hope to bring the plane back to Purdue for display. This plan would match Amelia's original wishes.

The whole effort rests on a specific idea known as the Nikumaroro Hypothesis. Supporters say Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan got stuck on this remote island after they missed Howland Island. Some theories even suggest they died there as castaways back in 1937. She was only thirty-nine years old then, yet she was already one of the most famous people in the world. Everyone knew her name when she tried to become the first female pilot to fly around the globe.

The team lost contact with each other during one of the last legs of their trip after leaving Lae, New Guinea on the way to Howland Island. They simply vanished into thin air that July 2 day in 1937. This expedition was actually announced last year but had to wait while officials waited for approval from Kiribati's government. That country's cabinet has now given the green light for the mission. Richard Pettigrew, who founded and runs the Archaeological Legacy Institute leading this search, called himself "grateful for the patience and enthusiasm of everyone who has followed this journey with us."

"The evidence supporting the Nikumaroro Hypothesis remains compelling," Pettigrew said in a statement released recently. He insisted that going to Nikumaroro is the only way to get real answers. They need to inspect the Taraia Object firsthand and let the facts guide them wherever they lead. The story of her disappearance has held Americans spellbound for decades while researchers kept digging through old papers. Last year, the National Archives finally released more than 4,600 pages of government records that had been sealed since 1937. These documents include details about her final known radio transmissions.

Pilot Justin Myers recently added fuel to the fire by identifying a possible image of Earhart's missing Lockheed Electra in Google Earth pictures of Nikumaroro.