Expedition hunting Amelia Earhart's lost plane comes up empty after the mystery object on a Pacific atoll is ruled out

The shiny surface that convinced the team it might be metal was a coral-sand coating. The expedition was led by Purdue University's Steve Schultz and the Archaeological Legacy Institute's Richard Pettigrew. By the time the 17 researchers reached Nikumaroro, in Kiribati, most of the debris had washed away. All that remained was a single Y-shaped fragment.

Storms kept the team stuck aboard ship for three of their five allotted days.

Divers did recover a steel tube about 30 inches long, which needs further study.

A Navy veteran first spotted the 'Taraia Object' in satellite imagery during COVID.