Hopes that Amelia Earhart’s long-lost plane had been found were dashed on Tuesday, Nov. 26. Researchers scanning the Pacific Ocean for the nearly 90-year-old wreckage thought they had found it last year but upon further inspection it’s reportedly just a natural rock formation shaped like a plane.
Tony Romeo funded the $11 million search with the group Deep Sea Vision for Earhart’s doomed flight.
In January of 2023, searchers claimed to have found sonar evidence of “what appears to be Earhart’s Lockheed 10-3 Electra” plane.
The images were captured by a submersible around 16,000 feet below the ocean’s surface, and 100 miles off of the coast of Howland Island, roughly halfway in between Hawaii and Australia, which would have been Earhart’s next scheduled stop as she attempted to become the first woman to fly around the globe.
Upon its return to the site, the team found the long-anticipated discovery was just a pile of rocks.
Despite the disappointing setback, the researchers vowed on Instagram to continue their search. The group said members have covered nearly 7,700 square miles so far in their efforts to find the ill-fated plane, which has been the subject of conspiracy theories for decades.
