LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX NEWS) — Could an object spotted on satellite imagery off a remote island in the South Pacific in 2015 be Amelia Earhart's famous Lockheed Electra 10-E?
That's the question a team of 17 hopes to answer soon, and the group includes LEX News' anchor and reporter Evelyn Schultz's dad, Steve Schultz.
A Kentuckian, Dr. Ren La Rocca, is also joining the expedition to offer his expertise.
Schultz, Purdue University's senior vice president and general counsel, is currently in Fiji, ahead of Saturday's expedition to the remote island of Nikumaroro.
"We know something's in that lagoon, and as I say, somebody's gotta go look at it, and it might as well be us," Schultz told LEX News Friday.
Over the next nearly three weeks of travel, the group will confirm if the image shows the remains of Earhart's plane. Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan went missing on July 2nd, 1937, as they attempted to fly around the world at the equator.
"I call her maybe the bravest American who ever lived in terms of what she dared to do," Schultz said. "People are interested in that, and people, it turns out, all over the world are interested."
Nearly 90 years later, Purdue and the Archaeological Legacy Institute say they owe it to Earhart's legacy to identify what's called the Taraia Object.
But it's a big undertaking — it takes twice as long to get to Nikumaroro as it does the moon, and the team has to travel by boat. The weather could also pose a challenge.
"El Nino is active in that part of the Pacific," Schultz said. "There will be challenges potentially when we get there to get through the blasted channel, which is the front door of the island, if you will, through the reef."
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