In 1937, the American boarded a twin-engine plane to fly around the world. She had disappeared without a trace in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. His previously untraceable aircraft may have been discovered by a team of researchers.
Is a mystery waiting to be solved that has fascinated the world of aviation for over 86 years? A former US Air Force member, Tony Romeo, claims to the American broadcaster NBC and the Wall Street Journal that he got his hands on the plane of Amelia Earhart, one of the greatest aviators in history. His plane, a twin-engine Lockheed Electra 10-E, disappeared in the Pacific on July 2, 1937.
The American planned to become the first woman to circumnavigate the world alone. But on the penultimate leg of her journey, she mysteriously disappears from the radio waves. His plane probably ran aground in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Since then, the mystery has not been solved and theories surrounding this disappearance have multiplied.
Better pictures soon?
But Tony Romeo may have found the wreckage of the Lockheed Electra 10-E. This former pilot gave up everything to start an underwater research company, Deep Sea Vision.
After several months of research, his exploration team was able to scan 8,000 km² in the depths of the Pacific. At the end of January, Deep Sea Vision released a sonar image: a photo taken by several American media outlets. We see a mass whose shape could be compared to that of an airplane.
“Deep Sea Vision has apparently found Amelia Earhart’s Lockheed Electra 10-E,” assures Tony Romeo.
Former pilot Tony Romeo claims he found Amelia Earhart's plane in the middle of the Pacific – Deep Sea Vision
He was thrilled by this discovery and said he wanted to take better pictures of the area. Speaking to NBC, he stressed that “there are no other known accidents in this area.” The probability that the plane is Earhart's plane is therefore not zero.
“I feel like a 10-year-old kid going on a treasure hunt”
The television station says it is too early to say whether the object identified by Deep Sea Vision is actually the missing aircraft, but believes it is an “encouraging” first step towards solving this 86-year-old issue puzzle.
“It might be the most exciting thing I will ever do. I feel like a 10-year-old going treasure hunting,” Tony Romeo told the Wall Street Journal, according to a report in the Guardian.
Researchers and airborne enthusiasts have been trying for decades to solve the mystery surrounding the disappearance of Amelia Earhart, the first woman to cross the Atlantic alone by plane in 1932.
One theory is that the twin-engine plane ran out of fuel over the Pacific Ocean in July 1937 and crashed on uninhabited Gardner Island, now called Nikumaroro, part of the Republic of Kiribati.
In 1940, a British expedition found a human skull, bones, the sole of a woman's shoe, a sextant case and a bottle of Benedictine on this island.