A South Carolina-based ocean exploration company claims it may have discovered Amelia Earhart’s plane from the ill-fated 1937 expedition, according to reports, after technical problems with photographic evidence It is said that he almost disappeared.
Deep Sea Vision CEO Tony Romeo, a former U.S. Air Force intelligence officer, used sonar technology to capture the shape of a plane about 16,000 feet below the surface of the Pacific Ocean. He said he believed the object was Earhart’s Lockheed 10-E Electra.
Earhart was about to become the first woman to fly around the world when she disappeared on July 2, 1937. She was last seen in Papua New Guinea, where she disappeared near Howland Island in the Pacific Ocean, where she was pronounced dead in her absence on January 5th. , 1939.
Romeo and her brother Lloyd have released images taken with sonar technology during their $11 million expedition in the Pacific Ocean, which show a faint sign in the shape of a plane that they believe could be Earhart’s plane. There was an image.
Ocean exploration company believes it may have found Amelia Earhart’s crashed plane: ‘We’re all hopeful’
Deep Sea Vision believes it may have encountered Amelia Earhart’s crashed plane in the Pacific Ocean. (Bettman via Getty Images/Deep Sea Vision)
However, in an interview with the Daily Mail, the brothers said the images may never have been seen because they encountered hard drive problems during the 90-day voyage.
During the expedition, the 16-person crew set out in September from Tarawa, Kiribati, near Howland Island, and used underwater drones to scan 5,200 square miles of the ocean floor.
During the run, sonar data needed to be extracted and scanned.
On this day in history, January 11, 1935, Amelia Earhart became the first aviator to fly solo from Hawaii to California.
Tony Romeo holds a model of Amelia Earhart’s airplane. It resembles the sonar images he and his crew took with high-tech equipment. (Tony Romeo/Deep Sea Vision CEO)
Tony told the publication that the hard drive appeared to have been completely corrupted at some point, and that he was preparing to erase and format the device until the operations director determined the data could be recovered. .
The data was recovered and the group realized what could be an incredible discovery.
“We noticed something there. It was a very sandy, flat area. We knew right away that this was something that could very well be an airplane.” Romeo told the Daily Mail.
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Amelia Earhart January 12, 1935, after her first flight from Hawaii to California. She was the first pilot to successfully fly this route. (Photo credit: © CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)
Romeo’s team did not immediately respond to inquiries from Fox News Digital about the loss of the photos.
Romeo took his findings to the Scripps Research Institute and the Smithsonian Institution, confirming his belief that Romeo had discovered Earhart’s plane.
Although Earhart’s body or her spaceship was never found, endless speculation and theories continue to circulate, ranging from a crash on another island to conspiracies and alien abduction.
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Amelia Earhart was attempting to become the first woman to circumnavigate the world when she disappeared on July 2, 1937. (AP)
The most commonly accepted theory is that she ran out of fuel.
“She would have lowered her to the surface as gently as possible and then basically tried to climb out of the hatch right above the cockpit,” Romeo explained to Fox News Digital.
They discovered what may be the missing ship about 16,000 feet below the sea. By comparison, the wreckage of the Titanic lies at a depth of about 12,500 feet.
“At the 16,000 feet altitude where we found this, the plane is probably in very good condition and very well preserved because of the temperature, the pH level, the anoxic level in the water,” Romeo said. Told.
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Although Romeo said “there’s always the possibility that something strange happened,” the Scripps Institution and Smithsonian Institution have discovered the wreckage of the plane in which Romeo crashed, theoretically confirming Earhart’s disappearance. agreed to match the aircraft.
Romeo and his team are currently in the planning stages of returning to the scene to get definitive confirmation that it is indeed Earhart’s plane, and hope to return sometime this year.
Fox News Digital’s Chris Eberhart and Andrea Vacchiano contributed to this report.
