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A pilot and explorer who embarked on an $11 million sea expedition believes he has solved one of the world’s biggest mysteries: the final resting place of Amelia Earhart’s plane that disappeared in 1937.
Tony Romeo, a former Air Force intelligence officer and CEO of Deep Sea Vision, sold commercial real estate to finance his exploration of the depths of the Pacific Ocean last year, when he combed the ocean floor with sonar technology in the area. suspicious of Earhart. crash.
His team reviewed sonar data in December captured by an underwater drone during their research trip and found a surprising image: a blurry, airplane-like shape that Romeo believes is Earhart’s twin-engine Lockheed 10-E Electra.
The image was taken about 100 miles from Howland Island, halfway between Australia and Hawaii.
Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, they were expected to land there in July 1937 for a refueling stop in her attempt to be the first female pilot to circumnavigate the world, but they never succeeded.
She was declared dead two years later, after the United States concluded that she had crashed somewhere in the Pacific Ocean and her remains were never found.
Although the image is blurry, Romeo believes it to be Earhart’s plane, given its unique shape.
“Well, it would be hard to convince me that it’s anything but a plane, one and two, that it’s not Amelia’s plane,” he told NBC’s “TODAY” show in an interview that aired Monday.
“There are no other known accidents in the area, and certainly not from that era with that type of design with the tail that is clearly seen in the image,” he added.
While it is too early to determine if this is truly the long-lost plane, it is an exciting prospect.
Romeo’s team plans to return to the site this year or early next year with a camera and a remotely operated vehicle to take better images of the site.
“The next step is confirmation and there is a lot we need to know about that. And it looks like there is some damage. I mean, she’s been there for 87 years at this point,” she said.
And returning is neither an easy nor cheap task, since the trip requires expensive high-tech equipment. Romeo’s trip used a Hugin underwater drone made by the Norwegian company Kongsberg, The Wall street diary reported.
On its final voyage, the expedition used an unmanned submersible to scan 5,200 square miles of ocean floor. The image of the suspect plane was found 5,000 meters underwater, the Journal reported.
“I think it’s the great mystery of all time,” Romeo said. “Undoubtedly the most enduring aviation mystery of all time.”
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