A veteran pilot has reignited the mystery surrounding Amelia Earhart’s disappearance, claiming he may have discovered her elusive plane on a desolate Pacific island using Google Earth. Nearly 90 years after Earhart vanished, Justin Myers believes he has spotted clues in the GPS images that suggest the presence of a decaying small aircraft on Nikumaroro Island. This island has long been hypothesized by researchers as a potential final resting place for the aviation pioneer and her famed Lockheed 10-E Electra.
Myers, who has dedicated almost 25 years to flying, only became intrigued by the Earhart enigma after viewing a documentary about her ill-fated 1937 attempt to fly around the world with navigator Fred Noonan. Motivated by the story, he began examining satellite images, immersing himself in the scenario by imagining, “What would I have done in Amelia and Fred’s shoes?” he shared with Popular Mechanics.
Drawing from his extensive experience as a pilot, Myers contemplated where he might have been forced to land a light twin-engine aircraft if he were in their precarious situation, running low on fuel and disoriented. As he meticulously analyzed the overhead images, he relied on his professional instincts and expertise to guide his search for answers.
When he started scouring the satellite images, he said he “was just putting myself in Amelia and Fred’s shoes,” he told Popular Mechanics.
Using his own experience as a pilot, he began to consider “where I would have force landed a light twin aircraft in their position, lost and low on fuel,” he said.
But as he stared at those overhead images, he started to bank on his own experience as a pilot, to think about “where I would have force landed a light twin aircraft in their position, lost and low on fuel.”
Myers keyed in on a flat area of Nikumaroro — a tiny island of Kiribati located between Hawaii and Fiji near the center of the Pacific Ocean — and noted a dark-colored object exactly 39-feet in length, matching the length of Earhart’s aircraft.
He continued to meticulously analyze the area and believed he found more debris from the airplane, including the engine, according to a blog post of his findings.
“The bottom line,” Myers told Popular Mechanic, “is from my interests from a child in vintage aircraft and air crash investigation, I can say that is what was once a 12-metre, 2-engine vintage aircraft.
“What I can’t say is that is definitely Amelia’s Electra.”
Last year, the ongoing mystery gained new traction after researchers at Purdue University claimed a 1938 aerial photo provides “very strong” evidence that another anomaly on Nikumaroro, known as the “Taraia Object,” could be Earhart’s downed plane.
The footage of the strange metallic object located underwater in a lagoon on the island of Nikumaroro — was captured a year after the pioneer aviator disappeared.
A 15-person crew of researchers was scheduled to visit the island in November to investigate further, but the trip was postponed until 2026.
