Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan disappeared in 1937 while attempting to fly around the world, and despite extensive searches, neither their bodies nor definitive wreckage of their plane have ever been conclusively found. Over the years, multiple expeditions have searched for answers, and several theories and claims have emerged, but none have been proven beyond doubt.

Recent Efforts and Theories

• In 2025, a team from Purdue University announced strong evidence of an object in a South Pacific lagoon on the island of Nikumaroro, believed by some to be Earhart's plane. An expedition to inspect and attempt to recover the object is in progress, aiming to finally confirm whether it is indeed the Lockheed Electra flown by Earhart.

• Multiple other searches and investigations—such as the sonar image findings in 2024—briefly raised hopes but were later determined to be either inconclusive or unrelated to Earhart.

• Some evidence, like distress signals heard in the days after her disappearance and forensic evidence from bones found on Nikumaroro, have bolstered the theory she may have landed there and perished as a castaway, but there is still no widely accepted "smoking gun" proof.

Official Status

Despite the ongoing intrigue and investigation, the official status remains unchanged: Amelia Earhart and her plane have not been definitively found or recovered, and her disappearance is still considered one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in aviation history.