An intriguing discovery by pilot and former US Air Force intelligence officer Tony Romeo has reignited interest in one of America's most enduring mysteries - the disappearance of aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart.
Now, Romeo is confident he's finally found Earhart's Lockheed 10-E Electra plane that disappeared during her famous attempt to circumnavigate the globe in 1937.
Romeo believes a sonar image captured during a high-tech unmanned submersible expedition may finally provide answers to this decades-old enigma.
The vanishing of Amelia Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, over the Pacific Ocean has long perplexed researchers, giving rise to various conspiracy theories over the years - from alleged Japanese imprisonment to suspicions of espionage.
Now, Romeo's sonar image has sparked renewed hope in uncovering the truth.
As reportedly by Business Insider, Romeo's journey began with a personal passion for the Earhart mystery, coupled with years of contemplation and research.
He successfully raised $11 million from selling commercial properties to fund his mission, which utilized a cutting-edge $9 million unmanned submersible known as the Hugin drone, manufactured by Norwegian company Kongsberg.
A 16-member research crew also accompanied Romeo on this ambitious undertaking, covering 5,200 square miles of the ocean floor during a 100-day voyage that began in September 2021 in Tarawa, Kiribati.
"This has been a story that's always intrigued me, and all the things in my life kind of collided at the right moment," Romeo explained to Business Insider. "I was getting out of real estate and looking for a new project so even though I really started about 18 months ago, this was something I've been thinking and researching for a long time."
Approximately one month into the expedition, the team captured a sonar image resembling an aircraft submerged about 100 miles from Howland Island, a significant location in the Earhart mystery. However, the discovery wasn't made in real-time but on the 90th day of their voyage, making it impractical to return for a closer examination.
Despite its blurry appearance, Romeo firmly believes the image represents Earhart's distinctive aircraft due to its unique shape.
Speaking to NBC's TODAY show, Romeo said: "Well you’d be hard-pressed to convince me that’s anything but an aircraft, for one, and two, that it’s not Amelia’s aircraft.
"There’s no other known crashes in the area, and certainly not of that era in that kind of design with the tail that you see clearly in the image."
Experts have expressed interest in the finding, with Dorothy Cochrane, a curator at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum, suggesting the reported location aligns geographically with the suspected crash site of Earhart's flight.
Nevertheless, some remain cautious, emphasizing the need for clearer images and specific details such as the plane's serial number before making definitive conclusions. Andrew Pietruszka, an underwater archaeologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, stated: "Until you physically take a look at this, there's no way to say for sure what that is."
Romeo intends to return to the area to obtain better images, employing autonomous or robotic submersibles equipped with cameras and sonar to closely examine the object resting more than 16,500 feet beneath the ocean's surface.
While there is no certainty yet, Romeo's discovery has ignited hope of solving the Amelia Earhart mystery once and for all. If the object indeed turns out to be Earhart's plane, it could be a historic breakthrough, bringing closure to a decades-old enigma that has continued to captivate people worldwide.
For now, the legacy of Amelia Earhart - the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic and the United States - endures, and her story remains a source of fascination and inspiration for generations.
Featured image credit: Bettmann / Getty
