Ex‑US Air Force officer finds Amelia Earhart's plane remains 90 years later, deep in the Pacific

Romeo reportedly used sonar data from a deep-sea drone to locate the aircraft wreckage and has expressed his belief that it belongs to Amelia Earhart, Reuters reports. The explorer plans to launch a submarine expedition to investigate the findings further this year or next.

"She's the most famous missing person in America, right? As long as she's not found, there will always be someone looking for her," Romeo told Reuters. Amelia Earhart, an American pilot, was the first woman to fly across the Atlantic alone and non-stop in 1932. She disappeared with navigator Fred Noonan in 1937 while undertaking an around-the-world flight.

Romeo, who currently serves as the managing director of the search company Deep Sea Vision, suspects that Earhart's plane wreck is over three miles under the water on the ocean bed and approximately 100 miles from Howland Island, which is nearly halfway between Hawaii and Australia.

The sonar drone showed a shape on the ocean floor eerily similar to an airplane. According to Romeo, the images captured by the drone display an object that matches the size of Amelia Earhart's Lockheed Model 10-E Electra. The images appear to show the aircraft's distinctive twin vertical stabilizers on the tail.

Reuters reports that the 16-person crew from Deep Sea Vision searched more than 5,170 square miles of ocean over 100 days at the end of last year. Romeo muses that Earhart may have run out of fuel and was forced to land on the ocean surface, ultimately sinking the plane. "The first step is to confirm this," he said. "The next one would be, if possible, to bring it to the surface," added Romeo, underlining that the process may take years.

Source: Reuters