Purdue’s expedition to find Amelia Earhart’s plane on hold

Search, expected to leave next week, pushed into 2026 as Purdue and crew wait for necessary permits

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PURDUE’S SEARCH FOR EARHART’S PLANE ON HOLD

A Purdue-backed expedition to a remote Pacific island in hopes of uncovering the remains of the lost Lockheed Electra 10-E Amelia Earhart was attempting to fly around the world has been put on hold at least until 2026, the university announced Monday.

The university and the Archaeological Legacy Institute officials say they haven’t been able to secure necessary permits from the Kiribati government to explore a lagoon of Nikumaroro Island, where explorers are hoping to see whether an object detected in satellite images is part of Earhart’s plane, missing since 1937.

During a July event at Purdue, Rick Pettigrew discusses an upcoming expedition to find Amelia Earhart’s Lockheed Electra 10-E. (Photo: Dave Bangert)

Purdue had been planning a farewell party Thursday from the Amelia Earhart Terminal at the Purdue Airport, ahead of a six-day trip by sea leaving Nov. 4 on two ships carrying a 15-member crew from the Marshall Islands 1,200 miles to an island containing what has been dubbed the Taraia Object.

“We were pretty much ready to go,” Rick Pettigrew, executive director of the Archaeological Legacy Institute, said Monday afternoon. “We have our equipment and supplies. But now we’re going to be postponing it. This will give us an opportunity to get even more ready than we were before last week when it became evident that we needed to postpone it.”

Steve Schultz, Purdue’s general counsel who will be with the crew, said the decision was made Friday, when the expedition leaders realized they were running out of time to get necessary environmental permits and other necessary clearance from the Kiribati government.

A new countdown will start after the cyclone season over the winter months at Nikumaroro, a small Pacific island roughly midway between Hawaii and Australia. Schultz said he was confident the permits would be approved and that the additional time would help strengthen relationships Purdue and archaeologists have tried to build with officials in the Republic of Kiribati.

“Disappointed, but not daunted,” Schultz said Monday.

Schultz said that time also would help the expedition’s efforts to lay out a curation plan if what the crews believe they see in satellite photos is, in fact, a piece of Earhart’s plane.

Amelia Earhart (Photo: Purdue)

Purdue goes into the mission – one announced over the summer as costing $900,000, with a $500,000 stake from the Purdue Research Foundation – with a considerable interest in Earhart’s plane, the pilot’s legacy and solving one of the great mysteries of the 20^th century.