On July 3, 2012 – the 75th anniversary of the U.S.S. Colorado’s departure to search for Earhart – TIGHAR’s Niku VII expedition will sail from Honolulu to conduct a search for the Earhart Electra in the waters adjacent to Nikumaroro. This is the hi-tech deep water search we’ve long wanted to do but could never afford.

Why Now?

Photo analysts at the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research have examined a photograph of the island’s shoreline taken three months after Earhart’s disappearance. They agree with TIGHAR forensic imaging specialist Jeff Glickman that an object visible in the photo is consistent with Lockheed Installation 40650, one of the main landing gear assemblies on Earhart’s Lockheed Electra Model 10E Special.

The photograph is not a smoking gun – at least not yet – but it is new and compelling support for TIGHAR’s long-standing hypothesis that Earhart landed the Electra safely on the island’s dry, smooth reef and sent radio distress calls for several days before rising tides and surf washed the aircraft into the ocean where it broke up and sank. The validation of Jeff Glickman’s research and the publicity generated by the announcement of the new expedition at a special State Department event on March 20th has enabled us to raise over 75% of the $2,000,000 it will take to carry out the search. As with our nine previous trips to Nikumaroro, no government funds are involved. The money is being raised from a growing family of corporate sponsors including Lockheed Martin and FedEx, but most of the funding to date has come as contributions, large and small, from individual donors. To complete the expedition budget we need what Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called “Amelia’s spirit, that sense that anything is possible if we just roll up our sleeves and get to work together.”

The expedition vessel was the University of Hawaii oceanographic research ship R/V Kaimikai-O-Kanaloa (affectionately known as “K-O-K”).  TIGHAR’s contractor for the hi-tech underwater search will be Phoenix International, the U.S. Navy’s primary source of deep ocean search and recovery expertise. Experienced underwater archaeologists will oversee the investigation of any man-made objects encountered during the search. A film crew will record the expedition for a Discovery Channel television documentary.

Upon arrival at Nikumaroro we’ll use multi-beam sonar to construct a detailed map of the steep, craggy underwater mountainside that is the island’s western reef slope.  Understanding the topography will help us define and prioritize the area to be searched by an Autonomous Underwater vehicle (AUV) equipped with a variety of sensors, including high-resolution side-scan sonar.  The exact AUV has not yet been selected.

“Targets” identified by the AUV will be investigated using a Submersible Systems, Inc. (SSI) TRV 005 capable of depths down to 1,000 meters (3,300 feet)..

Our objective on this expedition is to conduct a thorough search of the area we judge to be most likely to contain wreckage from the Earhart Electra. Any man-made objects found will be photographed and their location carefully recorded. No recovery of objects will be attempted unless necessary to confirm identification. Should identifiable wreckage from the Electra be discovered it will be documented as thoroughly as possible in situ so that a separate expedition can be equipped with the appropriate means to recover and conserve the materials.

It will take K-O-K an estimated eight days to cover the 1,800 nautical miles from Honolulu to Nikumaroro. We anticipate ten days on-site at Nikumaroro and eight days back to Honolulu for a total of twenty-six days at sea.

To help us complete the budget and carry out this important mission please click on the link below. All contributors will receive a Niku VII Certificate of Participation as sponsor of the expedition.

To make a donation to the Earhart Project, click HERE.