Amelia Earhart, the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She had attempted to be the first female pilot to circle the globe in 1937 87 years ago. She has never been found since. News spread everywhere, triggering one of the most largest and expensive searches and rescues in American History.

Researchers from South Carolina believe they have finally found her plane after so many years. They captured an image of what appears to be a Lockheed 10E Electra Aircraft at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, the same craft she flew before disappearing. The image was captured 100 miles from Howland Island located in the Pacific. This was exactly where Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan was to have stopped to refuel her aircraft before the disappearance. Because of this discovery, it unlocked many different theories and clues on what happened that day, such as reports that her plane had crash-landed on Gardner island in the Pacific, and bones that were found on that island in the 1940s could have been hers. There were no other known crashes in the area that the image was found, and definitely not with any planes that would have the same shape as Earharts. There might not be any more news to come since the researchers do have to fully certify that this is indeed her plane, but there’s a lot of hope and thought that it is.

Amelia Earhart had sent out several radio distress messages for several days after she had disappeared on July 2nd. Authorities had asked anyone to tune into the radio frequencies that Earhart was using on her trip. A 15 year old girl was listening in from Saint Petersburg, Florida. Some of the phrases she heard were “waters high,” “water’s knee deep – let me out” and “help us quick”. A house wife in Toronto heard a shorter version, “we have taken in water . . . We can’t hold on much longer.” On July 3rd, a day after Earhart’s disappearance, a woman named Nina Paxton from Ashland, Kentucky said she heard Earhart say “KHAQQ calling” and that she was on or near “a little island as a point near..” and then it cut out. Then, another thing about a storm and the wind was blowing. “We will have to get out of here, we can’t stay here long.” These were all said by Amelia Earhart. After all the frantic calls, there has been nothing for the world for the last nearly 87 years.

All of Earhart’s distress message reports were coming from Gardner Island, since a group of researchers TIGHAR located the point of origin of these radio messages, because the quality of radio reception would decrease the farther you moved away from it. Baker’s Island, which was the closest station to Gardner, where an operator heard a strong and clear voice signal with the plane’s call sign KHAQQ. Howland Island, the island just above from Bakers Island, was the island where Amlia Earhart and Fred Noonan were supposed to land to refuel, hence where the image of the plane was found. Earhart’s very last radio message to the US coast guard vessel was at 8:43 am, expressing that she was on the line of position 157’ , 337’, which ran north and south. The island in this position is Nikumaroro Island, also known as Gander Island..

TIGHAR has found many different things that could have saved Amelia Earhart at the time she went missing. She very well could have been alive way before she initially went missing. There is still a lot of research to be continued, with her bones being found, a part of her things in her plane being found, and so on.