After 77 years lost, an underwater drone discovered the remarkably preserved USS Hornet 17,000 feet below the Pacific, revealing eerie human-like remains and unexplained anomalies — a haunting reminder of wartime sacrifice and the ocean’s chilling power to guard its secrets.

For more than seven decades, the resting place of the legendary USS Hornet (CV-8) — one of the most decorated aircraft carriers of World War II — remained one of the ocean’s most enduring mysteries.

Lost in 1942 after a brutal battle in the Pacific, the ship’s fate seemed sealed in myth and memory.

But in a discovery that has stunned both historians and oceanographers, a state-of-the-art underwater drone has finally found the Hornet — and what it captured on camera has left experts at a loss for words.

The discovery was made in early 2025 by a research team from the Vulcan Oceanic Exploration Program, funded by the late Paul Allen’s foundation.

Using an advanced autonomous submersible named Abyss Explorer II, equipped with ultra-deep sonar and 8K visual mapping technology, the team located the Hornet at an astonishing depth of nearly 17,000 feet in the South Pacific.

The carrier was found more than 340 miles northeast of the Solomon Islands — exactly where many believed it had been lost after the fateful Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands.

“When we first saw the silhouette appear on sonar, we knew we were looking at something extraordinary,” said expedition leader Dr.Marcus Ellery.

“But nothing prepared us for the condition of the ship.

It’s preserved in a way that almost feels impossible — like time itself stopped the moment it sank.”

The first images transmitted by the drone show the Hornet resting eerily upright on the ocean floor.

Despite being submerged for over 80 years, much of the hull remains intact.

The ship’s name is still faintly visible across the stern, and the flight deck — once alive with fighter aircraft and crew — lies hauntingly empty, its catapults and arresting cables frozen in place.

Even more astonishingly, several aircraft — including Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers — were found scattered around the wreck, some appearing almost untouched, their propellers still gleaming beneath layers of marine silt.

But the most unsettling discovery wasn’t the ship’s preservation — it was what appeared inside.

As Abyss Explorer II maneuvered through the dark corridors of the wreck, its cameras picked up something the team described as “disturbingly human.

” Figures that looked like silhouettes of men, eerily preserved by chemical reactions between seawater, oil, and metallic corrosion, seemed to stand frozen in compartments and hallways.

“I’m not a superstitious man,” said Dr.Ellery, “but seeing those shapes in the light of the drone felt like looking into the eyes of the past.

It was deeply emotional… and frankly, terrifying.”

Historians say the Hornet’s discovery brings closure to one of the most heroic stories of the war.

Commissioned in 1941, the carrier played a pivotal role in launching the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo — America’s daring retaliation after Pearl Harbor — and later fought valiantly in the Pacific Theater.

During the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands in October 1942, the Hornet sustained devastating hits from Japanese dive bombers and torpedoes.

After multiple failed attempts to tow her to safety, the order was given to abandon ship.

American forces scuttled her, and she disappeared beneath the waves, taking more than 100 sailors with her.

“The Hornet was more than just steel and rivets,” said naval historian Captain William Greer, USN (Ret.).

“She represented courage and sacrifice.

To see her now, perfectly preserved in the silence of the deep, is both beautiful and haunting.”

The footage collected during the mission is currently being analyzed by a joint research team at the U.S.

Naval History and Heritage Command.

Preliminary scans suggest that the ship’s condition defies normal patterns of deep-sea decay.

Experts believe the extreme depth, lack of light, and low oxygen levels created a near-perfect preservation environment — a kind of underwater time capsule.

Adding to the mystery, the submersible’s sensors also detected faint electromagnetic anomalies near the wreck — subtle but persistent readings that researchers have yet to explain.

“We’re not talking about ghosts,” said Dr.Ellery with a nervous laugh.

“But there’s something about that site that behaves differently from any wreck we’ve ever studied.”

Plans are underway to release a full-length documentary later this year, featuring the recovered footage and interviews with descendants of the original Hornet crew.

For many families, the discovery offers long-awaited closure — and a tangible connection to their loved ones who never returned home.

Yet for the scientists who saw the wreck with their own eyes, the feeling is far more complex.

“It’s awe, it’s grief, it’s fear,” Dr.Ellery admitted quietly.

“The ocean keeps its secrets well.

And sometimes, when it finally gives one back, it reminds us just how small we really are.”

After seventy-seven years of silence, the Hornet has finally been found — but the questions raised by her discovery run deeper than the sea itself.