Sonar image speculated to be Amelia Earhart’s long-lost plane was just a rock: ‘Outcome isn’t what we hoped for’

The South Carolina-based deep-sea explorer who stumbled upon what he believed to beryllium Amelia Earhart’s long-lost level successful nan Pacific Ocean has now confirmed his once-promising find was conscionable a rock. 

Tony Romeo and his Deep Sea Vision squad – which captured a sonar image of an aircraft-shaped entity in nan Pacific Ocean during a three-month expedition to find Earhart’s Lockheed 10-E Electra – confirmed Friday that caller star images revealed nan potential breakthrough was simply an aircraft-shaped stone formation. 

“While this result isn’t what we hoped for, we are continuing our hunt for different 30 days to screen complete 1,500 quadrate nautical miles,” Romeo, a aviator and erstwhile US Air Force intelligence serviceman who sold each his commercialized properties to salary for his search, said successful a statement.

“The world consequence to our first find has been genuinely inspiring, a testament to Amelia and nan propulsion of her unthinkable story.” 

The pioneering female aviator, a family sanction astatine nan time, vanished pinch her formation navigator, Fred Noonan, connected what was to beryllium a record-setting travel astir nan world successful 1937.

The brace group disconnected from Lae, Papua New Guinea, pinch plans to refuel connected Howland Island earlier continuing their travel to Honolulu and their last destination of Oakland, Calif, but faced a beardown headwind successful Lae erstwhile Earhart’s power transmissions yet went silent. 

The US Navy and Coast Guard conducted a 16-day search for nan missing duo without success, and Earhart was officially declared dormant connected Jan. 5, 1939. 

Despite galore attempts and millions of dollars spent complete 9 decades, neither Earhart’s remains nor nan wreckage of her level person ever been located.

Romeo was convinced that he, on pinch his 2 brothers, some pilots, would lick nan baffling 87-year-old mystery that past adventurers couldn’t, trading his Charleston-area existent property company’s assets to motorboat his $11 cardinal expedition successful nan Pacific Ocean. 

The 16-person travel mounted successful September 2023 from Tarawa, Kirbati, a larboard adjacent Howland Island, and nan team’s unmanned submersible scanned 5,200 quadrate miles of water floor.

After astir a month, it captured a blurry image of an airplane-like entity much than 16,000 feet beneath nan aboveground wrong 100 miles disconnected Howland Island, generating world frenzy contempt skeptic sonar experts suggesting nan images were excessively hazy to verify it was Earhart’s plane.

Romeo’s latest findings came aft his unit group disconnected connected a 2nd expedition to seizure high-resolution sonar images of nan plane-shaped object, he said successful his statement. 

But it was conscionable a bunch of rocks, not Earhart’s plane. 

Romeo said that contempt nan disappointing findings, his institution remains committed to its hunt for Earhart’s wreckage, nan connection said.

Additional reporting by Katherine Donlevy