Ocean exploration company believes it may have found Amelia Earhart's wrecked plane: 'We're all hopeful'
Amelia Earhart disappeared in the Pacific Ocean after leaving Papua New Guinea
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A South Carolina-based ocean exploration company says it may have found the airplane that Amelia Earhart flew on her ill-fated 1937 expedition.
Deep Sea Vision CEO Tony Romeo, a former U.S. Air Force intelligence officer, believes that the airplane-shaped object that his company captured in a sonar image is Earhart’s Lockheed 10-E Electra.
Earhart was trying to become the first woman to successfully complete a circumnavigational flight of the globe when she disappeared on July 2, 1937. She was last seen in Papua New Guinea and disappeared near Howland Island in the Pacific Ocean.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The aviator was declared dead in absentia on Jan. 5, 1939.
Deep Sea Vision believes they may have come across Amelia Earhart's wrecked plane in the Pacific Ocean. (Bettman via Getty Images/Deep Sea Vision)
"We think it could be her plane," Romeo told local outlet The Post and Courier.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"[But] I’m not saying we definitely found her."
National Air and Space Museum curator Dorothy Cochrane told the Wall Street Journal that the location where the pictures were taken is "about right."
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"It was one of the great mysteries of the 20th century and still now into the 21st century," Cochrane said.
"We’re all hopeful that the mystery will be solved."
The image of the object was taken in the Pacific Ocean. (Deep Sea Vision)
In an interview with the WSJ, Romeo said he plans to return to get clearer pictures of the unknown object.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"This is maybe the most exciting thing I’ll ever do in my life," he said. "I feel like a 10-year-old going on a treasure hunt."
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Earhart's disappearance has perplexed Americans for decades. Ocean exploration firm Nauticos launched three expeditions to find her plane between 2002 and 2017, and came up with nothing.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Amelia Earhart at the tail of her Electra plane, taken at Burbank Airport in California, May 20, 1937. (Albert Bresnik/The Paragon Agency via AP)
Romeo, whose company used a $9 million drone to search 6,000 miles of the Pacific, said he is "optimistic" about the sonar image.
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"It’s almost a perfect riddle," Romeo said to the Post and Courier.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"There’s just enough information to pull you in. [And] just enough bits of information that aren’t there to draw you in even more."
The CEO of Deep Sea Vision says he plans to return to get clearer pictures of the unknown object. (Deep Sea Vision)
The CEO also told Fox News Digital that he has "always been fascinated with Amelia's story."
"I come from a family of pilots and am a pilot myself including having served in the US Air Force," Romeo said to Fox News Digital. "But as an entrepreneur I am always looking for unique opportunities and decided to follow this adventure."
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"But what sets us apart, is our use of next generation technology to help us cover more ground than other groups before us."
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