They thought they’d found Amelia Earhart’s long lost plane but it turned out to be a bunch of rocks

The hunt for Amelia Earhart plane's final resting place has taken a dramatic twist after searchers who claimed to have found the aircraft were looking at a rock formation instead

In January, the famed aviator's 1937 crash site was thought to have been discovered in the Pacific Ocean. But now, marine robotics firm Deep Sea Vision (DSV) said that imagery from an underwater drone deployed during its expedition was, in fact, a "natural rock formation".

"After 11 months, the waiting has finally ended, and unfortunately, our target was not Amelia's Electra 10E," the company said, referring to her twin-engine Lockheed Electra.

The sonar image of what appeared to be a cross-shaped object, not unlike an aircraft, sparked excitement when the company announced that Earhart's plane was "believed to be found." The image was taken about 100 miles from Howland Island, halfway between Australia and Hawaii, and a part of Earhart's itinerary as she attempted to become the first female pilot to circumnavigate the globe.

She and her navigator, Fred Noonan, were expected to refuel on Howland in July 1937 but never arrived. Earhart was declared dead two years later after the US concluded she had crashed somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, and her remains were never found. While the image was blurry, Tony Romeo, a former US Air Force intelligence officer and the CEO of DSV, believed it was her aircraft, given its unique shape.

"This is maybe the most exciting thing I'll ever do in my life. I feel like a ten-year-old going on a treasure hunt," he said. The explorer and two of his brothers, all pilots, were driven by the possibility of using their flying skills to help solve "the perfect riddle". "We always felt that a group of pilots were the ones that are going to solve this and not the mariners," he said.

Deep Sea Vision used an unmanned submersible to scan 5,200 square miles of ocean floor. On analysing the data, he said: "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. There's no other known crashes in the area, and certainly not of that era in that kind of design with the tail that you see clearly in the image."

He added: "I think myself that it is the great mystery of all time. Certainly the most enduring aviation mystery of all time." Despite the company's disappointment, they are continuing the hunt. They said: "As we speak, DSV continues to search - now clearing almost 7700 square miles... the plot thickens with still no evidence of her disappearance ever found... let us know what you think - did she run out of gas near Howland Island?”