Amelia Earhart search shows Taraia Object is just trees.

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/travel/amelia-earhart-search-suffers-crushing-setback-researchers-make-disappointing-find
Published: 2026-10-19
Author: Fox
Post Date: 2026-10-19 11:38:01 by Pinguinite
Views: 78

Researchers who embarked on a grueling journey to find Amelia Earhart's missing plane have suffered a devastating setback.

Purdue University announced that the team had "found no conclusive evidence" to confirm the Taraia Object hypothesis — which suggested that wreckage from Earhart's aircraft lay in a lagoon on the remote Pacific island of Nikumaroro.

The theory centered on the Taraia Object, a visual anomaly first spotted in satellite imagery in 2020 that researchers suspected could be wreckage of Earhart's Lockheed Electra 10-E.

But the university said the object was "likely a collection of large trees deposited along the peninsula’s sandspit."

The university added, "By the time the team arrived at the site, a good portion of the debris had fragmented and washed away, leaving only a single Y-shaped segment — a fraction of the anomaly’s original size observed in imagery when the Taraia Object hypothesis was developed."

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Oh well....

 

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#1: Esso    To: Pinguinite (#0)

>>Oh well...<<

It was always my understanding from past expeditions that they landed on the reef at low tide near the opening of the lagoon, on the periphery of the atoll.
At least my memory of the coconut crabs was correct. Nasty creatures.

The FBO at the Auburn airport told me that Noonan was a drunk and something about Earhart not wanting a navigational 'trailing wire' on the Electra because because it didn't 'look good' for photos before leaving New Guinea.
The artifacts like cosmetic bottles and stuff kind of settled the matter for me.

Trying to find the aircraft is a bit perplexing to me. I'm not a metallurgist [although I really pissed one off in the late 90s], I'd think most of the aluminum structure would've dissolved in the sea water by now.

Getting there and back must've been a hellish trip.
FWIW: I spent a semester at Purdue, West Lafayette in EE. Waste of time.
I did get an AAS in automotive technology at Ivy Tech eventually.
The electronics in cars have advanced so much, I only understand the mechanical aspect now.
That's why I pay Chip [Chip's Automotive and Mechanics Unlimited] $100+/hr.

The story about me and Charley, the metallurgist would make for a chapter in my book, but NDAs would pretty much limit a book to that alone.
The conflict was me using a silver eutectic filler to weld a steel needle to a SS ultrasonic drilling horn. Long story. A chapter.
Charlie was a weirdo, a lot older than me, lived with his mother just west of me. Overeducated and stuck in his own box.
There was one old bigshot engineer at the company that thought I was the coolest thing since sliced bread.
I can still see him and hear his voice, but I'll be damned if I can remember his name. We never fought.

Fort Wayne used to be called the "Wire Drawing Die Capitol of the World" [Diamond and Tungsten Carbide].
My buddy Ed was a machinist that made titanium die holders that would float to the top of the tinning metal or something so the dies could be recovered if a wire broke without shutting down the line.
His family had a farm out southwest where my ex-wife folks lived.

Esso posted on 2026-10-19 20:52:34   Reply   Private Reply