Search for Amelia Earhart’s plane resumes after stormy weather

A search for the wreckage of Amelia Earhart’s plane on a remote island in the Pacific Ocean has resumed after severe weather caused researchers to stop for several days.

A team has travelled to Nikumaroro Island, part of Kiribati, hoping to solve the mystery of the famed aviator’s disappearance by investigating the so-called Taraia Object, spotted in the atoll’s lagoon in aerial imagery.

The American pioneer vanished while attempting to circumnavigate the globe in 1937, spawning decades of speculation about her fate.

Rough seas and strong winds forced the team to remain on their research vessel for three days, until the weather cleared on Sunday.

“We are finally getting off the ship and able to land on Nikumaroro,” Sirisha Bandla, a technology specialist who is part of the expedition, said in a video update from the deck of the Marin Mainiku.

The researchers arrived at the uninhabited atoll last week and began an underwater survey of the area of interest.

But the weather – powered by strong El Niño conditions in the Pacific – has so far prevented them from beginning a second of three phases, in which underwater objects will be probed to determine their depth and sediment will be dredged.