Former U.S. Air Force intelligence officer and CEO of Deep Sea Vision, Tony Romeo, believes he has located the wreckage of Amelia Earhart's plane, which disappeared in 1937. Using sonar data from a deep-sea drone, Romeo plans to launch a mission later this year or next to confirm the discovery and potentially bring closure to the 87-year-old mystery. Earhart, an American aviator, was attempting to fly around the world with navigator Fred Noonan when their plane went missing over the Pacific Ocean. If successful, Earhart would have become the first female pilot to circumnavigate the globe.

Romeo's team, consisting of 16 members, searched over 13,400 square km (5,200 square miles) of the ocean floor for more than 100 days at the end of last year. Using a deep-sea drone, they captured blurry sonar images that appear to show a plane-like shape on the flat, sandy ocean bottom. Romeo believes the size and distinguishing features, such as the twin vertical stabilizers on the tail, match Earhart's Lockheed Model 10-E Electra.

Romeo supposes that Earhart ran out of fuel and landed the plane on the ocean surface, which later sank to the bottom. The wreckage is believed to be located more than 5,000 meters (16,400 feet) beneath the surface, approximately 160 km (100 miles) from Howland Island. If confirmed, the next step would be to raise the wreckage to the surface and restore it, a process that could take years.

Amelia Earhart's disappearance has been one of aviation's greatest mysteries, with numerous failed attempts to locate her plane over the years. However, Romeo remains confident in his findings, stating, "You'd be hard-pressed to convince me that's anything but an aircraft, for one, and two, that it's not Amelia's aircraft." The discovery of Earhart's plane would not only solve a long-standing mystery but also bring closure to the story of America's most famous missing person.