Nearly 90 years after Amelia Earhart’s ill-fated disappearance in 1937, one pilot believes he may have cracked the mystery of her lost plane.
Earhart's passion for flying began in 1920 after taking her first flight as a passenger with veteran pilot Frank Hawks.
She worked as a telephone company clerk to pay for her flying lessons and bought her first plane in 1921.
Just a year later, she became the first woman to fly at 14,000 feet, and in 1932, she made history as the first woman, and second person ever, to fly solo nonstop across the Atlantic - solidifying her place as a trailblazer in aviation.
Earhart’s final journey began with her and navigator Fred Noonan departing Oakland, California, for their round-the-world flight, stopping in Miami, crossing South America, the Atlantic, Africa, India, and South Asia.
On July 2, 1937, they left Lae, Papua New Guinea, aiming to refuel at Howland Island, but somewhere over the Pacific, they lost radio contact and vanished, sparking one of the world’s greatest aviation mysteries.
For 88 years, many theories emerged about their fate, from crashing into the sea to becoming castaways on a remote island, or even being captured by the Japanese.
Now, a pilot named Justin Myers, with nearly 25 years of experience in the air, is convinced he has discovered the wreckage of Earhart’s Lockheed Electra 10E on a remote Pacific island.
While Earhart’s disappearance has sparked numerous expeditions, Myers’ discovery is unique. Unlike others who have long been obsessed with Earhart's fate, the pilot only began his investigation after watching a documentary about the aviator.
“To be totally honest,” Myers told Popular Mechanics, “my interest started after watching a documentary on the National Geographic Channel. The next day, I started looking at Nikumaroro Island on Google Earth.”
Nikumaroro, a small island in the Pacific, has long been suspected to be the final resting place for Earhart’s plane or, at the very least, the wreckage of the aircraft.
Numerous trips over the years have uncovered artifacts such as improvised tools and pieces of Plexiglas believed to be from the Electra, though no conclusive evidence has ever been found.
For Myers, the breakthrough moment came when he started applying his expertise as a pilot to the aerial images of the island.
“I was just putting myself in Amelia and Fred’s shoes,” he explained. As he studied the Google Earth images, he began to notice an unusual, straight-edged object that seemed to match the dimensions of the Electra’s fuselage.
After measuring the objects, Myers was taken aback by the resemblance to airplane debris. “It looked man-made,” he noted, adding that he even identified what seemed to be a partially exposed radial engine.
The pilot said the measurements and observations all aligned with the size and shape of the Electra 10E that Earhart and Fred Noonan were flying when they disappeared.
While he was excited by his findings, the response he received from aviation authorities was less enthusiastic. He sent his research to the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), but they redirected him to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), leading to a report that, to date, has seen little progress.
Myers also contacted Purdue University, which has been involved in the search for Earhart’s plane, but has not received any response from them.
This lack of follow-up is not entirely surprising, as Myers is far from the only person claiming to have found the missing plane.
Back in 2024, underwater drone images from Tony Romeo's Deep Sea Vision had revealed a structure that appeared to resemble an airplane - only for Romeo to later retract the statement and admit it was a rock formation.
Despite such setbacks, Myers remains confident that what he found on Google Earth is more than just a coincidence.
“I managed to catch some photos before being covered over again by passing weather systems,” Myers explained.
He believes his discovery is not the result of wishful thinking but rather a stroke of luck combined with the right knowledge and technology.