AUVAC

Underwater Search for Ameila Earhart’s Airplane

July 10, 2013
Nelson P, The Underwater Search for Ameilia Earhart’s Airplane, Phoenix International, July 2013

In early July, on the 75th anniversary of the disappearance of Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan, members of Phoenix International Holdings, Inc. (Phoenix) and a team of experts set sail from Hawaii in support of a search effort led by The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR). The target of the search was Amelia Earhart’s Lockheed Electra 10E aircraft. After years of research, TIGHAR theorized that the plane went down near the island of Nikumaroro, an atoll roughly 1,900 miles southwest of Hawaii. Phoenix’s role was to search one square mile of the seabed from 50 to 4,000 feet – off the northwest side of the island. In the end, this extensive underwater search provided valuable AUV sonar imagery and ROV high definition video to support further study by TIGHAR and other forensic imaging experts –perhaps yielding more definitive clues as to the whereabouts of this famous plane.

 

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