1 of 3 images of Amelia Earhart in formal wear and as an aviator Photo: Public domain images/Via Wikicommons Images of Amelia Earhart in formal wear and as an aviator Photo: Public domain images/Via Wikicommons
American aviator Amelia Earhart became famous in the 1930s for being the first woman to fly an airplane across the Atlantic.
In 1937 she had an even more ambitious plan: to circumnavigate the world, but in July of that year she disappeared and the fate of her and her navigator Fred Noonan was never determined.
In its final leg it flies over the Pacific Ocean between Australia and the state of Hawaii in the United States. The pilot was supposed to pass Howland, a small island in the middle of the route, but never arrived.
Two years later, in 1939, Amelia was declared dead. Investigators concluded it crashed somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, but the plane and bodies were never found.
2 of 3 Image of Amelia Earhart Photo: Library of Congress Image of Amelia Earhart Photo: Library of Congress
Now another pilot and explorer claims to have discovered the location in the Pacific Ocean where the plane's remains are located.
Tony Romeo, a former US Air Force officer and current CEO of Deep Sea Vision, claims he found the 1937 plane. He gave an interview to the US broadcaster NBC.
He undertook an US$11 million (R54 million) expedition to find the location on the ocean floor using sonar technology in the region where Amelia's plane is believed to be.
Romeo's team collected data in December and discovered a blurry image shaped like a plane. They believe it is the missing plane.
3 of 3 Images purportedly taken from Amelia Earhart's plane by the Deep Sea Vision expedition Photo: @deep.sea.vision Images purportedly taken from Amelia Earhart's plane by the Deep Sea Vision expedition Photo: @ deep.sea.vision
The image was taken about 100 miles (160 kilometers) from Howland Island, between Australia and Hawaii.
He told NBC that no other plane was known to have crashed in the area and that this one was similar in shape to a 1930s plane.
His team is scheduled to return to the site later this year with an underwater camera.