Plane in the lagoon at Orona

[Tom Maxwell]

Contrary to my speculation, I think the bulky things under the tarps as seen on the aft camera(s) are the launch and retrieve boat for the ASV autonomous surface vessel DRiX. The ship passed 250 miles east of the Phoenix Islands on the transit from Hawaii to Samoa.

[Tom Maxwell]

The Nautilus is just Northwest of Tutuila American Samoa. This is near the location of the tragic 1938 air disaster of the Samoan Clipper S-42. Captain Musick and entire crew were lost. I think maybe Dr. Ballard is searching for the lost ship just as the Nautilus did in 2019. Nautilus has multiple vehicles in the water including the ASV Drix. This is encouraging. Hopefully the expedition will look for Amelia's airplane in the lagoon at Orona. We'll see later this fall.

[Tom Maxwell]

Nautilus has started the Howland Island area cruise. Mapping the ocean bottom is the mission of this expedition. In transit the various heading courses has the ship located just off the West side of Nikumaroro and heading North. Looks as though sonar search along the path will be looking for the mysterious object spotted earlier this year by another expedition that claims the object is Amelia's aircraft. Of course that sonar image can't be the plane as claimed because the 2006 satellite image shows the aircraft in the lagoon at Orona (Hull Island). For some reason, Google Earth still hasn't updated the Kiribati island name despite the change years ago. Amelia's aircraft is measurable and all the dimensions correspond exactly with the L10E Electra aircraft. In transit from Samoa, the Nautilus came within 140 NM of Orona. If the remainder of the year is dedicated to other expeditions, it looks as though the chances of investigation at Orona are over for 2024.

[Tom Maxwell]

The recent sonar image has proven to be a seafloor rock formation. Unlike the Orona 2006 satellite image, there was no measurements provided. The Orona measurements and obvious resemblance to the Electra are not enough to convince other investigators that this is Amelia Earhart's plane at the bottom of the Orona lagoon.
The Orona-Saipan theory of disappearance (Japanese capture) is not liked because it reveals that the Itasca failed in it's mission of support for the flight. The Itasca never transmitted radio homing beacon for use by the flight for radio homing/navigation. The Itasca could not transmit on the 3105 Kc voice as required during the approach to Howland Island. These multiple failures were directly responsible for the loss of the fliers and eventual capture by Japanese forces.