Earhart expedition reaches Nikumaroro Island and zeroes in on mysterious object that could be her lost plane

A 17-person team from Purdue University has landed on the remote Pacific island of Nikumaroro to investigate a satellite-imagery anomaly that researchers believe could be Amelia Earhart's lost Lockheed Electra aircraft. A New Zealand museum has simultaneously released 1938 aerial survey photographs of the island that offer fresh clues about the aviator's disappearance. The expedition, named the Taraia Object team, took a five-day voyage across the Pacific to reach the site and is now clearing vegetation and establishing operations on the lagoon's south side.

The crew is sleeping aboard their vessel the Marin Mainiku each night after discovering giant meat-eating coconut crabs roaming the island after dark.

Researchers hacked through heavily overgrown vegetation along a trail nicknamed the 'Gallagher Highway' using machetes and hand chainsaws — a two-hour operation — before encountering at least four of the crabs.

Air and Space Museum expert Dorothy Cochrane has separately said she sees 'no real mystery' behind Earhart's disappearance, as declassification of related documents looms.