A team searching for Amelia Earhart's missing plane has returned from a remote Pacific atoll without any find, after what looked like aircraft debris turned out to be a cluster of trees. News.com.au reported the development as a fresh clue in the long-running aviation mystery, while the BBC and The Guardian both reported that researchers believe the suspected wreckage was most likely vegetation.
The expedition focused on Nikumaroro, the atoll where some investigators have long argued Earhart's aircraft may have come down. According to Purdue University, the trip examined the so-called Taraia Object and ruled out the latest hypothesis, and the search for the plane is continuing.
Earhart disappeared in 1937 during an attempt to fly around the world, and efforts to establish what happened to her and her navigator have continued for decades. The Nikumaroro theory is one of several that researchers have pursued. Coverage of the search has also extended to the Marshall Islands, where Swellnet reported on the hunt for clues.
The outcome of this expedition adds to a pattern of leads that have not held up under scrutiny. Rather than producing wreckage, the team's trip ended with the suspected object identified as natural growth on the island.
What comes next is whether researchers mount another expedition to Nikumaroro or shift their attention to other locations, including the Marshall Islands, as the decades-old question remains open.
