Research team lands on Nikumaroro island to hunt for Amelia Earhart’s lost plane

The expedition will trek to a lagoon where a sonar anomaly was spotted, continuing a search that began with a marine team’s departure earlier in October.

By Felo News Desk · Published Tue, 13 Oct 2026 19:28:25 GMT

A research crew from the Archaeological Legacy Institute and Purdue University arrived on Nikumaroro, a remote atoll in the South Pacific, on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, to investigate a possible crash site of Amelia Earhart’s 1937 flight, according to a press release cited by NBC News.

What happened

The team landed on the island after a voyage from Los Angeles earlier in the month. Their plan is to hike toward a lagoon where satellite imagery showed an unexplained sonar return. The expedition follows a marine archaeology mission that set sail for the same atoll in early October, as reported by Felo News.

What the reports add

Both NBC News pieces confirm the arrival on Oct. 13, but the first article provides details about the historical context of Earhart’s disappearance, noting the July 2, 1937 loss of contact with the U.S. Coast Guard ship and the last transmission about cloudy weather and low fuel. The second NBC News video segment focuses on the arrival itself and does not repeat the historical background.

What was said

Richard Pettigrew, who leads the expedition, described the search as a "discovery of a lifetime" in the earlier Felo News coverage; his quote is reiterated in the press release referenced by the first NBC article. No new quotations appear in the two NBC sources beyond the press‑release statements.

How it came about

The current fieldwork builds on a marine team that departed Los Angeles for Nikumaroro in early October, backed by Purdue University and aimed at a sonar anomaly in the lagoon that could be Earhart’s Lockheed Electra 10‑E. Rival explorer Ric Gillespie, co‑founder of TIGHAR, has publicly doubted the wreckage will be found, favoring the castaway theory. Earlier Felo News reporting on Oct. 11 linked the expedition to these competing viewpoints and described prior sonar returns that turned out to be a pile of rocks.

Key facts

A research crew arrived on Nikumaroro island on Oct. 13, 2026. (nbcnews.com)
The team includes members from the Archaeological Legacy Institute and Purdue University. (nbcnews.com)
They will investigate a lagoon anomaly detected by satellite sonar. (nbcnews.com)
Earhart vanished on July 2, 1937 after losing contact with the U.S. Coast Guard. (nbcnews.com)

Timeline

1937-07-02 — Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan lose contact with Coast Guard while en route to Howland Island.
2026-10-01 — Marine archaeology team departs Los Angeles for Nikumaroro.
2026-10-13 — Research crew arrives on Nikumaroro to search for Earhart plane.