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The disappearance of pioneering aviator Amelia Earhart more than 87 years ago remains one of history’s most captivating mysteries, with a handful of explorers dedicated to scouring the seas for clues to its final destination.

Sonar images captured in January revealed a planar shape anomaly on the seafloor about 100 miles (161 kilometers) from Howland Island in the Pacific Ocean – the next place Earhart was scheduled to land before her arrival. declared lost at sea. The detection renewed worldwide interest in the mystery and left many people wondering if Earhart was missing. Lockheed 10-E Electra had finally been found.

Back on site on November 1, Deep Sea Vision — an ocean exploration company based in Charleston, South Carolina, which captured the original sonar image, identified the object as a natural rock formation.

“You’re talking about the cruelest formation nature has ever created,” said company CEO Tony Romeo, a pilot and former U.S. Air Force intelligence officer. “It’s almost like someone put these stones in this cute little pattern on their plane, just to annoy someone who was looking for it.”

Romeo said he was surprised the object wasn’t at least another plane or a man-made object.

“We didn’t pop any champagne bottles the first time, because we wanted to be 100 percent sure, (but) there was a dark moment,” Romeo told CNN in a phone call . “I think everyone just took a little bit of time, a little bit of space, and then we remembered ourselves…and we immediately got back to work looking for new areas that we wanted to explore.”

Deep Sea Vision announced the update in a Instagram post on November 6, saying his search continues. After discovering the rock formation, the expedition crew explored more than 1,000 square miles (2,590 square kilometers) for a search total of at least 7,700 square miles (19,943 square kilometers) of ocean , Romeo said.

Although it wasn’t the update the team was hoping for, Romeo and other experts said they shouldn’t give up hope of one day finding closure for the aviation legend.

The rock formation was more than 16,000 feet (4,877 meters) underwater. When first discovered, the team’s Advanced Autonomous Underwater Vehicle, or AUV, a device that maps the ocean floor using sonar technology, was about 1,640 feet (500 meters) away, a Romeo said.

The team sent the AUV directly above the site in early November, producing a high-resolution image of the rock formation.

“The atmosphere was very joyful when we left,” Romeo said. “We were excited (but) cautiously optimistic because we knew there was a possibility that (the anomaly) might not be what we thought, but obviously everyone was excited.”

It took a long time for the AUV to get into position to scan the object — about 24 hours after launch until the team could see the data, Romeo said. After an anxious wait, the image surprisingly revealed that the object was a natural rock formation, he said.

Romeo said other images have confirmed the rock formation, but the company has not yet released any material other than a sonar image because a documentary about the expedition is in the works. The team may not return to the area to search further until 2026, due to other missions, Romeo said. “It will be a while before we go back,” he added, “but we want to find it, and I believe we will.”

Meanwhile, other explorers continue their research, such as Nauticos, a seabed exploration company based in Kennebunkport, Maine, which has conducted operations for lost aircraft in the past. Nauticos recently completed an analysis of what it considers high-probability areas where the plane could be found. based on radio dataand the remaining area to be searched could potentially be covered by an additional expedition, said David Jourdan, co-founder and president of Nauticos.

When Deep Sea Vision first announced the anomaly, Jourdan warned against using sonar images to identify anything on the seafloor.

“On our website we say: ‘Long-range sonar images have historically been shown to be misleading, particularly in areas with geological formations.’ That’s a polite way of saying it could just be a pile of rocks. … Which turns out to be the case,” Jourdan said in an email recently.

Finding objects on the seafloor is like “searching for a contact lens on a football field in the dark using a penlight for illumination.” This is possible, but it requires careful and methodical work,” he added. “The quality of the sonar data is important, as is knowing where you searched and not missing any spots along the way. »

Conspiracy theories have grown since the aviator’s disappearance, but the US government suspects that Earhart and his navigator crashed in the Pacific when the plane ran out of fuel.

Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan took off from Lae, Papua New Guinea, on July 2, 1937. The aviator’s final flight radio broadcasts became stronger as it got closer to Howland Island, indicating that it was approaching it before disappearing, according to Dorothy Cochrane, curator of general aviation at the Island’s aeronautics department. Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. The couple was declared lost at sea after the US government conducted a 16-day search.

Cochrane said she wasn’t surprised by the setback in the search for Earhart’s plane. “I would like to hope that they can find it, just to put all that aside. But in reality, it’s a big ask. It’s a really hard thing to do,” she said.

“It’s one of the greatest unsolved mysteries of all time,” I said in the 20th century. We are now well into the 21st century. Nobody had the cachet of an Earhart, (who) was followed around the world at the time and made such spectacular flights.

Romeo said he believes research will become easier as technology advances.

“Somehow I’m even more excited about it now, aren’t I?” It felt like the plot was thickening and the riddle was still unsolved. … I hope this inspires other people to go look for her or at least learn more about her and her story,” he said. “I want to see the plane found. She’s outside. She didn’t just disappear into thin air.