Rock formation, not Amelia Earhart’s plane, shown in sonar image : NPR

A deep sea exploration firm that teased a doable clue into Amelia Earhart’s disappearance now says that the underwater picture it launched earlier this yr would not present the wreckage of her plane because it had hoped, however a coincidentally plane-shaped pure rock formation.

South Carolina-based firm Deep Sea Imaginative and prescient introduced in January that it had captured sonar photos of what is likely to be Earhart’s Lockheed Electra on the backside of the Pacific Ocean — about 100 miles off Howland Island, the place she and her navigator, Fred Noonan, have been imagined to refuel in July 1937 throughout their quest to circumnavigate the globe.

The 2 by no means arrived, and neither their our bodies nor the aircraft wreckage have been ever recovered. Earhart was declared useless in 1939.

The disappearance of the 39-year-old — who, if profitable, would have been the primary feminine pilot to fly all over the world — stays certainly one of aviation’s largest mysteries to at the present time.

Deep Sea Imaginative and prescient is the most recent in a protracted line of explorers who’ve got down to attempt to discover solutions.

The corporate used a high-tech unmanned underwater drone and a 16-member crew to survey greater than 5,200 miles of ocean ground in late 2023. It introduced earlier this yr that certainly one of its sonar photos had captured what it believed might be Earhart’s aircraft.

The potential discovery of the underwater wreckage would recommend that Earhart’s aircraft ran out of gasoline and sank into the water, certainly one of a number of enduring theories about her disappearance.

Others consider, primarily based on a since-debunked {photograph}, that Earhart and Noonan survived a crash touchdown solely to be taken prisoner by Japanese forces, who have been increasing their attain within the area within the buildup to World Battle II. One other principle is that the pair crashed on or close to the distant Nikumaroro Island — a part of current-day Kiribati — and died quickly after as castaways.

The case is much from closed. In an Instagram publish earlier this month, Deep Sea Imaginative and prescient introduced its search had really fallen brief.

“After 11 months the ready has lastly ended and sadly our goal was not Amelia’s Electra 10E (only a pure rock formation),” it wrote. “The plot thickens with nonetheless no proof of her disappearance ever discovered.”

The search continues

Deep Sea Imaginative and prescient CEO Tony Romeo, a pilot and former U.S. Air Pressure intelligence officer, advised NPR in January that there have been three predominant causes to consider they’d discovered the wreckage.

The dimensions and tail part of the determine within the picture intently resembled Earhart’s plane, he mentioned, and the realm the place it was captured was “extremely flat and easy, so any pure formation protruding up from the underside can be very uncommon.”

However he additionally acknowledged there was purpose to be cautious. Even the corporate’s January press launch mentioned that regardless of its optimism, there had been a “nice deal of inside debate about whether or not to launch the sonar picture publicly.”

“We had a bottle of 1937 Jameson Whiskey on board,” Romeo advised NPR’s Morning Version. “We determined to not crack it open ‘trigger nothing’s official but.”

Romeo mentioned the subsequent step can be to get a remotely operated automobile to the ocean ground — a distance of about 15,000 ft — to take photos and consider the situation of the presumed plane.

“What we wish to see is NR16020. These are the numbers that have been painted on the entrance and backside facet of the wings of her plane,” Romeo mentioned. “And we anticipate, primarily based on what we have seen from different World Battle II airplanes at related depths within the ocean, that the paint and the aircraft will probably be nonetheless in actually good situation.”

Romeo advised CNN final week that his workforce revisited the location at the start of November and used an autonomous underwater automobile (AUV) to seize a high-resolution picture, which revealed the rock formation.

“Speak concerning the cruelest formation ever created by nature,” he mentioned. “It is nearly like any individual did set these rocks out on this good little sample of her aircraft, simply to mess with any individual on the market searching for her.”

NPR has reached out to Deep Sea Imaginative and prescient for extra details about their search and subsequent steps.

The corporate wrote on Instagram that it’s persevering with the search “as we converse,” having cleared nearly 7,700 sq. miles. In a separate publish across the similar time, it wrote that it was headed to American Samoa for an unrelated seafloor mineral undertaking.

“Get our shirt (and a few humor) as we search for precise rocks this time!” it added.

The publish hyperlinks to a web site the place individuals can purchase a T-shirt with the corporate’s title and a picture of the plane-shaped formation. It reads, “We discover rocks.”