US Navy veteran claims to spot Amelia Earhart's lost plane in Pacific lagoon via backyard drone shot: Is it real or just a hoax?

Amelia Earhart's disappearance on July 2, 1937, remains one of history's greatest unsolved puzzles, getting the attention of not just the people of those times, it is infact one of those mysteries that is talked about even today.


As the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic, Earhart is seen as an embodiment of fearless exploration, pushing boundaries in an era when aviation was still young and perilous.

Her attempt to circumnavigate the globe in her Lockheed 10E Electra, along with her navigator Fred Noonan, ended abruptly over the Pacific, just near Howland Island. There was no wreckage, and no one could find out what had exactly happened; there was no confirmed fate, just theories ranging from crashes into the ocean depths to survival on a remote atoll.

But what exactly keeps this story alive, even nearly 90 years later?

There have been innumerable human expeditions to find out the real truth behind the years-old incident.

But a drone shot has brought this event into the limelight once again, it claims to have clicked a photo of an aircraft that might be one of Earhart's.

Armelia Earhart's lost aircraft found?

In 2020, Mike Ashmore, a retired US Navy veteran and aviation enthusiast , spotted something unusual while zooming into satellite maps from his California backyard. The shape in Nikumaroro Atoll's lagoon, about 400 miles southeast of Howland Island, looked like an aircraft wing, according to details from CBS News


Called as the "Taraia Object," it appears in images dating back to 1938, as said by archaeologist Rick Pettigrew, executive director of the Archaeological Legacy Institute (ALI), per CNN.


Pettigrew shared the discovery on a forum run by the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIHAR), igniting debate. Some dismissed it as a tree trunk, but Pettigrew saw potential ties to Earhart's plane.

According to CNN, he's now leading a July 2026 expedition with Purdue University, where Earhart once worked while sailing 1,200 nautical miles from the Marshall Islands. The team plans five days of sonar scans, magnetometer readings, and dredging, as outlined in Purdue's announcement.

Nikumaroro Hypothesis has a mixed response

The Nikumaroro theory, suggests Earhart and Noonan landed on the atoll's reef after missing Howland, survived briefly, then perished. TIGHAR's Ric Gillespie, who's explored the island 11 times, found artifacts like a compact, cosmetic jars, and a sextant box. Bones discovered there in 1940, once called male, now match a woman's profile, possibly Earhart's, via modern forensics, according to Gillespie and Pettigrew.

Yet Gillespie doubts the Taraia Object. After a personal visit, he called it "very clearly a tree," per the same source. He added, “Everybody wants the airplane. The airplane is gone,” believing surf destroyed it soon after landing. Pettigrew remains optimistic, citing "very strong" evidence from aerial photos, as quoted in CBS News.

Two theories, one mystery

These clashing views for Earhart searches show the human inquisitiveness, and as Nikumaroro theory supporters bet on island survival, ocean hunters follow data trails and recent photos. As the team is ready for their next expedition this year, we can only wait to find out what happens next, and whether the Taraia Object is an aircraft or just another hoax.