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The wreckage of Amelia Earhart's plane, which disappeared in 1937, is believed to have been found at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean by a former United States Air Force intelligence officer.
The discovery of the plane, missing for 87 years, was done using sonar data from a deep-sea drone. The explorer, named Tony Romeo, also plans to initiate a mission to find the remains of the plane later this year.
"She's America's most famous missing person, right? As long as she's missing, there's always going to be somebody out there searching," Romeo said. "If we can help bring closure to this story and bring Amelia home, we'd be super excited."
Who was US aviator Amelia Earhart
According to a website dedicated to Earhart, she was the first woman and the second person to fly solo across the Atlantic in 1932. In 1935, she became the first person to fly solo across the Pacific from Honolulu to Oakland, California.
Earhart’s next goal was to become the first woman to fly around the world. In 1937, as the US aviator approached her 40th birthday, she took on the ambitious flight when her plane went missing over the Pacific.
“On June 1, Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, departed from Miami and began the 29,000-mile journey. By June 29th, when they landed in Lae, New Guinea…their next hop—to Howland Island—was by far the most challenging…," the website states.
The US Coast Guard cutter ITASCA was stationed offshore of Howland Island. Additionally, two US ships were also stationed as markers for the route.
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“Howland is such a small spot in the Pacific that every aid to locate it must be available,” Earhart emphasised, according to the website.
July 2, 1937 - when Earhart's plane went missing
On July 2, they took off for Howland but faced challenging weather conditions. Earhart’s radio transmissions were irregular. ITASCA did pick up on her during the journey but couldn’t locate her.
The last words ever heard from Earhart during the flight journey were, “We are running north and south.”
Romeo, who owns a private exploration company Deep Sea Vision, believes the wreckage of the plane lies on the ocean floor more than 5,000 metres below the surface. It is estimated to be present about 160 km from Howland Island.
According to Romeo, the data showed images which were likely of a plane, matching the size of Earhart's Lockheed Model 10-E Electra.
(With agency inputs)
