Amelia Earhart Search Ends With More Questions Than Answers

Fans of Amelia Earhart were hoping to celebrate the legendary pilot’s 115th birthday with photos of her long-lost plane. Unfortunately, the search for aviation pioneer who disappeared 75-years-ago over the Pacific Ocean didn’t yield any groundbreaking results.

The Earhart Project wrote on its website:

“As is usually the case with field work, we’re coming home with more questions than answers…. We are, of course, disappointed that we did not make a dramatic and conclusive discovery, but we are undaunted in our commitment to keep searching out and assembling the pieces of the Earhart puzzle.”

The AFP reports that the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery launched a $2.2 million expedition in July to explore the area near the Nikumaroro island in Kiribati to search for Amelia Earhart’s twin-engine Lockheed Electra aircraft.

The researchers collected hours of video and sonar data but did not find any traces of Earhart’s plane. CBS reports that the researchers will spend the next few weeks analyzing the data to see if they missed anything.

A statement from the group reads:

“We have volumes of sonar data and many hours of high-definition video to review and analyze before we will know whether we found it…. Due to the limitations of the technology, we were only able to see standard-definition video images during actual search operations. Now that we’re examining the recorded high-definition video, we’re already seeing objects we want our forensic imaging specialist, Jeff Glickman, to look at. We’ll also be getting expert second opinions on our best sonar targets.”

Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan went missing on July 2nd, 1937, during her attempt to become the first woman to circumnavigate the globe. The group believes that the pilot probably crashed on a reef near the Kiribati atoll of Nikumaroro.

According to CBS, a second group is planning an expedition to search for Amelia Earhart’s plane later this year.