Researchers claim to have found the explorer's plane after 86 years

In 1937, the American boarded a twin-engine plane to sail around the world. She disappeared into the middle of the Pacific Ocean without a trace. A team of researchers may have discovered his plane, which was previously untraceable.

Is a mystery that has fascinated the aviation world for more than 86 years about to be solved? Tony Romeo, a former member of the US Air Force, told the American channel nbc The Wall Street Journal got their hands on the plane of Amelia Earhart, one of the greatest aviators in history. His twin-engine plane, Lockheed Electra 10-E, disappeared in the Pacific Ocean on July 2, 1937.

The American planned to become the first woman to sail around the world solo. But on the penultimate stage of its journey, it mysteriously disappears from the radio waves. His plane likely ran aground in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Since then, the mystery has remained complete and there have been many theories surrounding this disappearance.

Better pictures coming soon?

But Tony Romeo may have located the wreckage of the Lockheed Electra 10-E. This former pilot gave up everything to start an underwater exploration company, Deep Sea Vision.

After several months of research, his exploration team was able to survey an area of ​​8,000 square kilometers in the depths of the Pacific Ocean. At the end of January, Deep Sea Vision published a sonar image: one that was picked up by several US media outlets. We see a mass whose shape can be compared to the shape of an airplane.

“Deep Sea Vision has found what appears to be Amelia Earhart's Lockheed Electra 10-E,” confirms Tony Romeo.

Excited after this discovery, he said he wanted to take better photos of the area. Speaking to NBC, he confirmed that “there are no other known incidents in this area.” So the probability that the plane was Earhart's is not zero.

“I feel like a 10-year-old going on a treasure hunt.”

The TV channel specifies that it is still too early to say whether the object identified by Deep Sea Vision is indeed the missing plane, but it considers it an “encouraging” first step in solving this 86-year-old mystery.

“This might be the most exciting thing I'll ever do,” Tony Romeo told the Wall Street Journal. “I feel like a 10-year-old going on a treasure hunt.” According to a report by The Guardian newspaper.

Researchers and air enthusiasts have been trying for decades to solve the mystery of the disappearance of Amelia Earhart, the first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean alone by plane in 1932.

One theory is that in July 1937, the twin-engine plane ran out of fuel over the Pacific Ocean and crashed on uninhabited Gardner Island, now called Nikumaroro, of the Republic of Kiribati.

In 1940, a British expedition on this island found a human skull, bones, the sole of a woman's shoe, a sextant case and a bottle of Benedictine.