Amelia Earhart was one of the most famed pioneers of the 20th century. She broke boundaries for women and was the first person to fly solo across the United States, and the second person to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, mysteriously disappeared during her attempt to circumnavigate the world in July 1937. It’s been almost 90 years and no one knows what happened to the duo, but as of a few months ago, that may be changing. 

A group of marine robotics experts and underwater archeologists from Deep Sea Vision have found what could be Earhart’s Lockheed 10-E Electra. The team discovered a plane-like mass about 100 miles from Howland Island, which was Earhart’s planned destination. Lloyd Romeo, co-leader of Deep Sea Vision’s search for Earhart’s plane, spoke with 8th-grade students at Park Forest Middle School on February 23rd from California via Google Meet to discuss his team’s possible historic findings.

This discovery could certainly be Amelia’s plane, after all, it matches the dimensions of the Lockheed 10-E Electra and Amelia’s radio signals right before disappearing. Romeo doesn’t believe she could have ended up anywhere other than around Howland Island and is 80% sure the plane is Amelia’s. 

Lloyd says the whole idea started with his brother, Tony Romeo. He remarked, “We all became interested in different areas that kind of converged.” Lloyd studied engineering and industrial controls while Tony studied contract law and started a business. According to Lloyd, Tony always felt Amelia Earhart’s disappearance was a “solvable mystery”. So that’s why (after a lot of research) Tony bought the HUGIN 6000 (a vehicle used to collect data underwater), they shipped it to Darwin Australia, put it on the boat they would be using, and set sail for Howland Island. 

The team was getting frustrated when after 90 days they still hadn’t found anything. It wasn’t until the very last day when they got the sonar image of what might be Amelia’s plane. Tony Romeo says, “It was definitely a surreal moment for all of us.” The team announced their discovery on January 27th, 2024.

Lloyd says they don’t have any plans to bring the plane to the surface, particularly because they don’t have the resources to do so, but the whole team agrees the plane belongs in the Smithsonian Institute.

Works Cited

Deep Sea Vision, https://www.deepseavision.com/. Accessed 22 March 2024.

“Amelia Earhart.” National Air and Space Museum, https://airandspace.si.edu/explore/stories/amelia-earhart. Accessed 22 March 2024.

“Amelia Earhart: Possible breakthrough reportedly emerges.” New York Post, 2 September 2023, https://nypost.com/2023/09/02/amelia-earhart-possible-breakthrough-reportedly-emerges/. Accessed 22 March 2024.