Rock Formation Fooled Earhart Searchers

Nature pulled a fast one with this rock formation in an airplane shape that was mistaken for Amelia Earhart’s and Fred Noonan’s Lockheed Electra

Instagram/Deep Sea Vision

Aviation's most enduring mystery remains just that. The company that was so sure it had found Emilia Earhart and Fred Noonan's Lockheed Electra now say the airplane shape they spotted on sonar was a diabolically arranged natural rock formation. “Talk about the cruelest formation ever created by nature,” said Tony Romeo, CEO of ocean exploration company Deep Sea Vision told CNN. “It’s almost like somebody did set those rocks out in this nice little pattern of her plane, just to mess with somebody out there looking for her.”

With some fanfare last January the company released sonar images of what looked like an Electra planform on the seabed about 100 miles from Howland Island. The island was Earhart's and Noonan's destination when they went mission on a circumnavigation flight 1937.

Russ Niles is Editor-in-Chief of AVweb. He has been a pilot for 30 years and joined AVweb 22 years ago. He and his wife Marni live in southern British Columbia where they also operate a small winery.