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They Found Amelia Earhart’s Plane After 89 Years

Nick Jackson

1,170,499 views

Amelia Earhart vanished in 1937 while trying to reach Howland Island. Nearly 90 years later, researchers say a plane-sized shape called the Taraia Object lies beneath the shallow lagoon at Nikumaroro, and a 2026 expedition plans to examine it directly.

This documentary follows Earhart's final radio line of position, why deep-ocean searches failed, the case for Nikumaroro, and the evidence both for and against the object being her Lockheed Electra. It could be aircraft wreckage. It could be a tree. The difference this time is that the team plans to test one specific object with drone imaging, sonar, magnetometers, probing, and careful dredging.

WATCH NEXT
The last Amelia Earhart search and everything that led here:
Amelia Earhart’s Plane Was Finally Found?

FURTHER READING
Archaeological Legacy Institute: The Taraia Object expedition
https://www.archaeologychannel.org/ta...

Purdue University Archives: Earhart's disappearance and the original search
https://archives.lib.purdue.edu/repos...

TIGHAR: The skeptical case for the object being a coconut tree or log
https://tighar.org/Publications/TTrac...

#AmeliaEarhart #Nikumaroro #AviationHistory

20 Comments

@VoidWalker42069 1 month ago

Blows my mind that we have satellites that can read a text message from space but we can't get less blurry photos of a potential location for a missing legend? Wild

@joshuad5529 1 month ago

I checked Google Earth and found the exact coordinates: (-4.668436°, -174.528503°). In the most recent satellite imagery available (April 8, 2024), there is an object at that location measuring about 36 ft long. However, when I reviewed the historical imagery, that object does not appear in earlier images. What's interesting is that the object looks nothing like what is shown in the video. It doesn't resemble an airplane at all, it looks more like a tree or some other natural feature. Also, the object is not in the exact same location as the one shown in the video. Some might argue that it moved, but that raises another question: would a plane move and then remain there? That seems unlikely. A tree or floating debris, on the other hand, could potentially shift position over time.

@GlennWebster-d3b 1 month ago

I think they checked that out already. Turns out it was an uprooted tree.

@kentlindal5422 1 month ago

Why does everyone keep thinking that what we find will still look like a plane? It's more likely to be a pair of engines and landing gear the rest torn to confetti and long lost.

@Al_Kraus_Jr 1 month ago

The mission, officially approved by the Kiribati cabinet, is set to proceed with the following timeline:
October 3, 2026: Some team members will fly out of the Purdue University Airport.
October 6, 2026: The full 16-person crew will convene in Tarawa, Kiribati.
October 7, 2026: The team will depart by sea to sail roughly 830 nautical miles to Nikumaroro to conduct the search.

@BigMountainFudgecake66 1 month ago

Weren't you people paying attention? She's in the Delta Quadrant, along with the other 37's, abducted by aliens.

@saraicastro9672 1 month ago

A plane shaped shape

@GrimCreeper12Gaming 1 month ago

Imagine the object just ends up being a tree or something😂

@dwade6322 1 month ago (edited)

Since I was a kid in the late 70's I have always wondered what was the truth about her and the plane. Her memory deserves a proper ending to the mystery.

@TomAdair-l2i 1 month ago

Ok, I give up. What's with the constant fade to black?

@Wipdat.Weasel666 1 month ago

In that area objects like period correct Freckle makeup have been found. Its hard to think how this would have ended up at this Island at that time

@gunnyd8135 1 month ago

It's a mother bleeping tree. The plane was taken out by the tides and swept away by the currents. It will not be found. But all the circumstantial evidence points to the plane landing on the reef, with the radio intact for several days.

@CraftAero 1 month ago

"Satellite photos dating back to 1938..."
Wait, WHAT ??
Your AI is exceptionally shitty.

@jewlsthefaithful6139 1 day ago (edited)

All I can say is THANK YOU for providing a shorter video with more real content than b-roll! I’m SO tired of all the other peoples vids about everything under the sun but that are 95% b-roll with only a few documented photos, maps, or such flowered in! So thank you!

@yotaracer 1 month ago

Her plane was already in the water at high tide right after she landed on that island . It’s why she was only sending out sos calls every 18 hours . Eventually her plane got washed back into into the ocean and then destroyed by ocean waves , it was aluminum. The same exact knife she had was found on that same island . Let’s not forget the picture the navy took where you can see the wheel from an airplane sticking out the water .