An expedition to investigate the disappearance of Amelia Earhart’s plane in the South Pacific in 1937 has been postponed until next year.

Richard Pettigrew, the Oregon archaeologist leading the latest venture to solve the mystery of the legendary aviator’s demise, said in a news update that the expedition — originally scheduled to begin Nov. 4 — had to be delayed due to problems in securing the permits required for his team of 14 people to travel from Majuro, the capital of the Marshall Islands, to Nikumaruru, a remote island in the Republic of Kiribati.

The goal of the mission is to investigate a white, airplane-shaped object researchers have spotted in a satellite photograph taken of Nikumaroro in 2020. The Taraia Object, as it’s being called, appears to be submerged below the surface of the lagoon at the center of the coral atoll.

Pettigrew and his team believe Earhart and her flight navigator, Fred Noonan, could not find their intended destination, tiny Howland Island, on the morning of July 2, 1937, and traveled 400 miles to the southeast, where they made an emergency landing on Nikumaroro. They believe the pair survived for several days before succumbing to the elements.

It’s one of countless theories about what might have happened to the aviators. Most experts believe they ran out of fuel near Howland and crashed into the ocean nearby.

Purdue University, which helped Earhart purchase the 10-seat plane 88 years ago, is helping Pettigrew, the founding director of the nonprofit Archaeological Legacy Institute in Eugene, Oregon, carry out the mission, whose cost has been estimated at $900,000. Pettigrew said the nonprofit continues to raise funds for the venture.

Team leaders said that even if the Republic of Kiribati, an island country dispersed over more than 1.3 million square miles situated roughly halfway between Hawaii and Australia, gave its full permission in the next few days, it would still not be in time for the team to avoid the annual cyclone season in that part of the South Pacific, which generally occurs in winter.

The team will return to the expedition no earlier than April 2026, said Pettigrew, who sounded undaunted by the setback.

“Because of the compelling evidence we have in front of us, we have to go to Nikumaroro and get a close look at the Taraia Object,” he said. “Rest assured that we will do just that, so stay tuned! We will have a revised project schedule worked out soon.”

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