12. An expedition on Nikumaroro coincided with the underwater search
Oral histories passed down by the former colonists on Nikumaroro included several claims of finding the skeletons of a man and a woman, so identified by their clothes. Others referred to a wrecked aircraft, though at different locations on the island. The first colonists arrived on the island months after Earhart’s disappearance. Only days after she vanished, airplanes from the battleship USS Colorado overflew the island, and did not report any evidence of an airplane. The crewmen of the aircraft were trained aerial observers; battleships carried aircraft as scout planes and to observe the fall of shot from the ship’s big guns. They would have been unlikely to miss a wrecked airplane, or a parked aircraft on the reef.
Nonetheless, numerous archaeological expeditions to the island have combed it for human remains and other evidence over the years. Another coincided with the undersea search conducted by Ballard and his team. They searched the areas described through the lore of the former colonists as the site where the skeletons were found. They also took soil samples, in the hope they would reveal the presence of human DNA. Portions of a skull, first found on Nikumaroro decades earlier and believed lost, were identified and sent for DNA analysis at a Florida laboratory. All of the most recent activity regarding the search for Amelia Earhart received extensive press coverage and generated considerable public attention. It reached a peak as Ballard’s expedition prepared to depart in the summer of 2019.