A breakthrough has appeared in the greatest mystery of the disappearance of the plane of the famous aviator Amelia Earhart.

“I feel like a 10-year-old going on a treasure hunt.”

A former US Air Force pilot claims he may have located the missing plane of famed aviator Amelia Earhart. Tony Romeo believes sonar images may well be evidence of the wreckage of a plane flown by an American female pilot who disappeared over the Pacific Ocean in 1937.

A modern ocean explorer says he may have solved one of modern aviation’s greatest mysteries by releasing sonar images that he claims may show the wreckage of the plane flown by Amelia Earhart on the floor of the Pacific Ocean.

As The Guardian recalls, Amelia Earhart’s plane disappeared over the Pacific Ocean in 1937 as she sought to become the first woman to fly around the world. Since then, the fate of the American pilot has been shrouded in mystery amid intense speculation about what happened to her.

But Tony Romeo, a pilot and former U.S. Air Force intelligence officer, told The Wall Street Journal on Friday that he may have solved the mystery after receiving a sonar image of what could be the plane as part of his search for Amelia Earhart’s plane.

Tony Romeo, a South Carolina real estate investor who sold his business to fund the search for the wreckage of Earhart’s plane, posted the photos on social media. The photographs show a blurred mass that could – almost – be mistaken for a plane. He told the Wall Street Journal that he would now try to get better images.

“This is probably the most exciting thing I’ve ever done in my life. I feel like a 10-year-old going on a treasure hunt,” Tony Romeo told the newspaper.

If this is true, the discovery would be a remarkable achievement. But there have been many other attempts to unravel the mystery of the disappearance of Amelia Earhart, notes The Guardian.

In 2018, forensic analysis of bones found on the remote Pacific island of Nikumaroro strongly suggested they belonged to Earhart. The bones were found back in 1940, but were initially thought to belong to a man. However, a new analysis of the remains – the bones themselves were gone – showed that they were of a woman’s size and similar to what would be expected if they belonged to Amelia Earhart.

Also in 2018, expedition leaders from the International Historic Aircraft Recovery Group said they may have found the wreckage of Earhart’s plane off an island in the South Pacific, citing a plane-like object in a sonar image. Romeo’s efforts are different from that previous expedition.