A possible answer to one of the most enduring mysteries in modern history:
Amelia Earhart's family is once again hopeful that the 87-year-old mystery over the aviator's disappearance will finally be solved after a search in the Pacific pinged what could be her long-lost airplane.
Earhart, you will probably know, vanished in July of 1937 over the Pacific Ocean, near the vastly remote Howland Island. She and her flight navigator Fred Noonan never showed up on the island; search efforts over the past 90 years to find her plane, a Lockheed Electra 10E Special NR16020, have frequently centered around that island. It's hard to overstate how remote it is:
Air Force veteran Tony Romeo recently mounted a lengthy new search near Howland, and it looks like he may have turned up something promising:
On the final day of the search, Romeo's Deep Sea Vision crew detected what appeared to be a sunken plane 16,000 feet underwater, with Romeo texting the family and renewing their hope to finally get some answers.
'There have been many, many searches, and really, not a single shred of evidence has ever turned up,' [Bram Kleppner, Earhart's great nephew] told Fox News Digital. 'It feels like this is a more promising lead than anything we've seen to date.'
Here's what Romeo's sonar turned up:
Now, I don't know about you, but I'm looking at that like:
But I'd guess these sonar experts know what they're looking at!
To state the obvious, 16,000 feet is a long way down. It's about three miles — significantly deeper than the wreck of the Titanic. Romeo, meanwhile, says nothing is definitive until they can get more answers:
We need to get a camera on it. When we see those numbers NR16020 on the wing, that's when we'll know for sure what it is.
Exciting stuff. Stay tuned.
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