Amelia Earhart: Researchers scan ocean for missing plane

An incredible story is developing in the Pacific Ocean, where researchers are trying to crack a nearly century-old mystery. What happened to Amelia Earhart? Yeah, there is a lot of data, of course, that investigators and researchers are looking into. Ron has the latest live from the control room. This is one of those age-old mysteries, Ron, and people are just, they're constantly thinking, whatever happened to Amelia? Yeah, and we could be very close now, closing into an answer, Celeste, to that mystery. In fact, within a matter of days, according to researchers at Purdue. So the pilot's aircraft, you know, she vanished in the middle of the Pacific Ocean back in 1937. She and her navigator were attempting to become the first people to fly around the world along the equator. And they actually were getting very close to their goal when they went down. So that was all cut short, disappearing without a trace, seemingly about 22,000 miles into the journey. The wreckage has never been found. But now researchers say, quote, visual anomalies found on satellite imagery have led the investigative team to an underwater search site. The area, though, is so remote it took five days at sea just to get there. Still very early in the phases of our work. Maritime guys are trolling with the side-scan sonar. So hopefully we'll narrow in on this search and see what's there pretty soon. Everyone loves a mystery, and this is one of the great mysteries of history. But on top of that, she was such a striking and historic figure in her own right. So people have been wondering, looking, and theorizing about it ever since. And researchers continue to run into obstacles in their investigation, including, we're told, gigantic carnivorous crabs. Who would think? Well, there's the proof right there. Purdue says it hopes to provide an update on the expedition you guys within a week. You may remember on The Great American Story, we did a whole episode. You can watch that, by the way, on our YouTube channel. And it was just that last leg or two that she was on. there was a tiny island she was aiming for but just couldn't see it her last radio transmission was we must be on you this was to a ship that was in that area yeah but we cannot see you and then they went down it would be so amazing if they were able to discover something any little piece of her plane or something you know pretty incredible ron thank you