Video taking off 14x its usual first day

Coconut crabs complicate the search for Amelia Earhart's plane

A Fox News report pairs the expedition's wildlife hazards with a still-unanswered question about a shape beneath a lagoon.

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Fox News Clips Story of October 16, 2026Trari Newsroom

Why this story? The video opened at a pace of 103,066 views a day, 14 times a normal first day on this channel (7,494).

'FLESH-EATING' crabs COMPLICATE search for Amelia Earhart's plane

Fox News Clips has posted Steve Harrigan's report on an unusual obstacle for researchers investigating a possible trace of Amelia Earhart's plane: the large coconut crabs inhabiting their remote South Pacific search area.

The excerpt from Fox News Channel drew about 69,000 views in its first 12 hours, already well beyond the channel's usual full-day audience for Shorts. But the report is an expedition update, not an announcement that the aircraft has been found.

Dana Perino introduces the satellite image behind the search, which shows a shape beneath the water near Nikumaroro Island. Harrigan describes a Purdue research team's effort to investigate it, while Mitch Daniels discusses the crabs' size and carnivorous habits.

The wildlife gets the title, but viewers also keep returning to the central question: is the underwater object actually a plane? Several ask why researchers cannot simply inspect it directly. The report shows that work is underway, without supplying an identification.

In an update from Nikumaroro, researcher Steve Schultz says the maritime team is using side-scan sonar. His assessment is measured: "We're still very early in the phases of our work."

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