More than 75 years after the aircraft carrier USS Hornet sank in a World War II battle, researchers have uncovered its wreckage 3 miles under the South Pacific Ocean.
The Hornet played a role in several key events of the war — including the Doolittle Raid on Japan and the pivotal Battle of Midway.
Since it sank, its resting place has been a mystery. An expedition crew, funded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, has been searching for "historically significant shipwrecks" using the Research Vessel Petrel.
"We had Hornet on our list of WWII warships that we wanted to locate because of its place in history as an aircraft carrier that saw many pivotal moments in naval battles," Robert Kraft, director of subsea operations for Allen's company Vulcan, said in a statement.
The team used data from national and naval archives, along with a dive from an autonomous underwater vehicle, to find the ship. They located it in the ocean around the Solomon Islands late last month.
