Expedition reaches Nikumaroro to search for Amelia Earhart's lost plane

An expedition organized by the Archaeological Legacy Institute (ALI), Purdue Research Foundation and Purdue University is in the final stretch of a voyage to Nikumaroro, a remote atoll in Kiribati's Phoenix Islands Protected Area, to examine a shape in the atoll's lagoon that researchers call the Taraia Object. According to Purdue University's official expedition updates, the team's vessel, the Marin Mainiku, was expected to arrive at the atoll around midday on October 12, 2026, local time, after a roughly six-day, 830-nautical-mile sea voyage from Tarawa.

The expedition is investigating whether the Taraia Object is wreckage of the Lockheed Electra 10-E flown by Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan, who disappeared on July 2, 1937, during an attempt to circumnavigate the globe, according to Purdue University's expedition materials.

What is the Taraia Object

ALI executive director and expedition leader Richard Pettigrew has said the object is a visual anomaly first spotted in satellite imagery in 2020 and appears, based on aerial photographic evidence, to have been in the same spot in the lagoon since 1938, according to Purdue's newsroom and a report by WLFI. Pettigrew described it to WLFI as appearing to be "pretty big" and "a shiny metal thing," located in a lagoon far from any inhabited area. Maritime archaeologist William Wilson, quoted in the same report, said the team would combine remote-sensing technology with traditional underwater archaeology and dredging to examine it.

Supporting material cited by the expedition includes a medicine vial found on the island decades ago bearing letters that researchers say match a California pharmacy associated with Earhart, according to WLFI's reporting. Purdue has not described this as proof, and the expedition's own materials frame the Taraia Object as an unconfirmed anomaly requiring direct inspection.

Who is on the expedition

Purdue's newsroom lists the team as including Pettigrew; Steve Schultz, Purdue's senior vice president and general counsel, who is serving as team lead on the ground; safety officer Aaron Arrants; ALI field assistant and retired physician Renato LaRocca; and additional members including Sirisha Bandla, Marc Hagle, Laura Kennedy and filmmaker Helmut Schleppi. The Archaeological Legacy Institute's website lists project partners including RECON Offshore, the Kiribati National Shipping Line, the Niswonger Foundation, Columbia Sportswear and the Museum of Flight, alongside the government of Kiribati's shipping line, which is providing the Marin Mainiku vessel.

Purdue's connection to Earhart predates this expedition: the university's newsroom notes that Purdue originally helped finance the Lockheed Electra 10-E Earhart flew, after the university's Amelia Earhart Fund provided money that went toward the aircraft's purchase in the 1930s.

Planned work on the island

Once ashore, Purdue's October 9 update said the team planned to conduct a drone survey of the island, split into two groups to cut a jungle passage and to sail boats around the island's southern perimeter to reach the lagoon's natural opening at Tatiman Passage, then establish a staging area on the lagoon's south side and use magnetometers and sonar before attempting hydraulic dredging at the Taraia Peninsula. Purdue's newsroom said the team planned to spend several days working on the island before heading back to the ship.

Coconut crabs among the hazards

Nikumaroro is home to large populations of coconut crabs (Birgus latro), land-dwelling crustaceans that can grow leg spans exceeding three feet and are strong enough to lift weights comparable to a small child, according to a Yahoo News report describing the expedition's safety briefings. Steve Schultz told reporters the crabs are "one of the reasons we're leaving the island every night before sundown," citing the animals' nocturnal hunting behavior.

The crabs also feature in a theory about Earhart's fate described in the Yahoo News report, which cites a 2013 Smithsonian Magazine article: if Earhart and Noonan survived a landing on Nikumaroro, coconut crabs drawn to the scent of blood could help explain why later searches found scattered bones but no complete remains. Purdue's expedition materials do not adopt this theory as established fact.

Background: the 1937 disappearance

Earhart and Noonan disappeared on July 2, 1937, after failing to reach Howland Island during an attempt to circumnavigate the globe, according to Purdue University's expedition materials. The Nikumaroro hypothesis being pursued by this expedition is one of several competing theories about what happened to the aircraft and its occupants.

What happens next

Purdue's public updates said the team expected to complete its on-island work and begin the return voyage later in October 2026. As of October 12, Purdue's updates had not yet confirmed what, if anything, searchers found at the Taraia Object.