A research expedition searching for Amelia Earhart's missing aircraft has reached Nikumaroro, a remote Pacific atoll where giant coconut crabs may have played a role in the disappearance of the pioneering aviator's remains. The crew intends to sleep aboard its ship rather than on the island to avoid the crustaceans, which are large enough to lift heavy objects and split open coconuts.
Earhart vanished over the central Pacific in 1937 while attempting to become the first woman to fly around the world. She was flying with navigator Fred Noonan when their Lockheed Electra disappeared near Howland Island. Despite extensive searches at the time and numerous private expeditions since, no definitive trace of the aircraft or the pair has ever been confirmed.
The current expedition is focused on the theory that Earhart and Noonan landed on Nikumaroro, then known as Gardner Island, and survived there for a period before dying. The island is now part of the Phoenix Islands Protected Area, a vast marine conservation zone in Kiribati. Researchers believe that coconut crabs, which are among the largest terrestrial arthropods in the world, may have consumed and scattered the remains, complicating efforts to recover evidence.
The team's decision to remain on the ship reflects the practical hazards of working on an island where the crabs are abundant and can grow to more than a metre in leg span. The animals are known to be attracted to the scent of meat and have been observed carrying objects as heavy as coconuts and small tools. Expedition members have previously noted that the crabs could have moved bones or personal effects far from where they were originally deposited, potentially explaining why searches have yielded only fragmentary evidence.
The expedition is the latest in a long series of attempts to resolve one of aviation's most enduring mysteries. Previous searches have recovered items on Nikumaroro that some researchers have linked to Earhart, including fragments of a pocket knife, a piece of a shoe, and what may be part of a cosmetic jar. None of these finds has been conclusively tied to the aviator, and sceptics argue that the objects could have arrived on the island through other means.
Interest in Earhart's fate remains intense nearly nine decades after her disappearance. The story has inspired books, films, and countless speculative theories, ranging from a crash at sea to capture by Japanese forces. The Nikumaroro hypothesis has gained particular traction because of the island's location along a plausible flight path and the presence of artefacts that appear consistent with a castaway's camp.
The current crew hopes that improved technology and a more systematic survey of the island's terrain will produce new evidence. The team is expected to spend several days in the area, conducting searches and documenting conditions on the atoll. Any significant find would be subject to independent verification before being accepted as related to Earhart.
For now, the expedition's arrival at Nikumaroro marks another chapter in the long effort to answer what happened to Amelia Earhart. The island's crab population, far from being a curiosity, may hold the key to why the evidence has remained so elusive.