80 years after the disappearance of Amelia Earhart, there might finally be an answer as to what happened.

For decades the world has wondered, theorized, and investigated what happened to Earhart and her plane. The research team Chasing Earhart has been spearheading “Project Blue Angel”, whose goal is to investigate the plane that was found off the coast of Papua New Guinea. 

Group director William Snavely saying, “We’re still exploring to try to find out whose plane it is. We don’t want to jump ahead and assume that it’s Amelia’s.” The group has yet to confirm whether the plane is Earhart’s, “but everything that we’re seeing so far would tend to make us think it could be.”

One of the most convincing pieces of evidence to why this plane might be Earhart’s has to do with where the plane was found.  Buka Island, where the wreckage was found, was directly on Earhart’s flight path. It is theorized that she was low on fuel and forced to make a stop or to turn around. The theory continues saying that she most likely crashed off the coast of the island.

But it’s not all theories. The Project Blue Angel discovered the plane in August of 2018 and along with it, several characteristics that match with those of Earhart’s plane. Most notably was a class disc that could very well be a light lens from her plane.

Additionally, the area Project Blue Angel has been searching has never been searched in connection to the disappearance.

There are still thousands of theories of what happened to her, but Snavely thinks that a real answer might not be out of the question: “while there is no way to be certain yet that this is definitively Amelia Earhart’s Electra, the crash site may hold the clues to solving one of the world’s greatest mysteries,” Snavely added in the statement.”