A new mission to find Amelia Earharts plane turns to AI for help

For almost 90 years, the mystery of what happened to Amelia Earhart has endured.

She and her plane disappeared somewhere over the central Pacific Ocean on July 2, 1937.

Since then, it seems like every few years, an expedition sets out to find her plane.

The boats and recovery teams have always been armed with the latest equipment, historical diaries, and maps.

I’m old enough to remember the 1989 TIGHAR expedition, the first modern civilian search to focus heavily on the "castaway hypothesis." Yes, some people thought she might still be alive, but most thought it was a big waste of time.

That '89 castaway trek, like all the searches before and since, returned empty-handed.

Around eight years ago, there was a glimmer of hope that bones discovered in the Pacific were Earhart’s, but that study has been heavily disputed .

Well, here we are again.

There’s renewed hope of finding Amelia and determining where she actually perished.

A fresh team of researchers from Purdue University has arrived on the remote island of Nikumaroro.

The crew was featured on Wednesday’s Good Morning America .

The segment noted that the island where they’ve set up their HQ is home to flesh-eating crabs whose claw power rivals the bite of a lion.

This is a trip I would decline, even in the almost-impossible instance that I was invited.

Crabs aside, they are there to investigate a mysterious underwater shape in the island’s lagoon known as the " Taraia Object ." Once again, some are on pins and needles over whether the Earhart conundrum will finally be resolved so she can rest in peace.