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Subscribe to RSSSeventy-five years after the disappearance of Amelia Earhart, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is lending her support to a new investigation into the mystery surrounding the famed aviator's final flight. NBC's Chris Jansing reports.
WASHINGTON -- Following new analysis of a photo that could show wreckage of Amelia Earhart's plane, the Obama administration on Tuesday said it was backing a search this summer to hopefully solve the mystery of America's greatest female aviator.
"We can be as optimistic and even audacious as Amelia Earhart," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said at a ceremony in Washington, D.C., to announce U.S. support for the expedition. "There is great honor and possibility in the search itself."
The search by The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery will focus on the remote island of Nikumaroro, in what is now the Pacific nation of Kiribati.
The group believes Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan might have managed to land on the island, then known as Gardner Island, and that they could have survived for a short time after disappearing on July 2, 1937.
Other historians believe they crashed into the ocean. But conspiracy theories, including claims that they were U.S. government agents captured by the Japanese before World War II, abound despite having been largely debunked.
The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery
This 1937 photo was presented Tuesday as having been analyzed by experts to reveal an object in the water, not easily visible at this scale, showing what might be the landing gear and a wheel from an aircraft.
New analysis of a photo taken at Nikumaroro three months after the disappearance shows what some people believe could be a strut and wheel of the plane protruding from the water, the group says. State Department analysts helped examine the photo.
The hypothesis is that the plane crashed on a reef before eventually being washed deeper into the sea.
The group hopes that probes down the reef slope will reveal larger aircraft parts such as the engines lying in a dim "twilight zone" about 300 yards below the ocean surface.
A photo taken just three months after Earhart disappeared may provide new evidence of famed aviator's plight. The group that plans to conduct the deepwater search believes her airplane is still recoverable. NBC's Chris Jansing reports.
Renowned oceanographer Robert Ballard, who discovered the wreckage of the Titanic and the Bismarck and is advising the Earhart expedition, said the new analysis of the photograph could be the equivalent of a "smoking gun" as it narrows the search area from tens of thousands of square miles to a manageable size.
In 2010, bone fragments were found on the island that the group believes might be of Earhart or Noonan. Other artifacts have been recovered there as well that suggest the two might have lived for days or weeks after landing on a reef.
The privately funded group is putting up $500,000 for the search. The U.S. won't provide money but will offer limited logistical support. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood joined Clinton at the ceremony.
Ric Gillespie, the executive director of the group, said the new search is scheduled to last for 10 days in July and will use state-of-the-art underwater robotic submarines and mapping equipment. The Discovery Channel will film the expedition for a television documentary, he said. He acknowledged that the evidence was circumstantial but "strong" but stopped well short of predicting success.
Discovery of bones and other artifacts on a remote island have proven inconclusive in the search of famed pilot Amelia Earhart. NBC's Janet Shamlian has the story.
"The most important thing is not whether we find the ultimate answer or what we find, it is the way we look," he said. "We see this opportunity to explore ... the last great American mystery of the 20th century as a vehicle for demonstrating how to go about figuring out what is true."
"Back in 1937, in the painful recovery from the Great Depression, Amelia Earhart's courage and determination inspired the American people," he added. "Well, hard times are here again and we need that type of courage and determination again ... we're going to try our best to find her, not for ourselves, but for you," the public.
Details about the planned expedition
Explainer: Earhart and other famous mysteries
The expedition will coincide with the 75th anniversary of Earhart's departure on the ill-fated attempt to become the first woman to fly around the world.
NBC's Catherine Chomiak and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
More than 70 years after Amelia Earhart disappeared over the Pacific during her around-the-world flight, documents and photos are being released that shed new light on one of aviation's greatest mysteries. NBC's Chuck Henry reports.
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People who think that solving this mystery is a political ploy to help re-elect Obama need to get a grip. The only thing this case and politics have in common is the GOP's continuing tail spin.
And if they do locate her airplane, this private group will probably sell any artifacts they find and get rich. That's what has been done with much of the stuff found in the debris field of the Titanic and I doubt these people conducting this search are spending their $500,000 for the sake of solving this mystery. Very little is sacred anymore and I've grown somewhat skeptical about allegedly benevolent enterprises. Besides, if somebody will by J.D. Salinger's toilet and Lee Harvey Oswald's casket, there's got to be a big market for anything that belonged to Amelia Earhart. Sorry about my cynicism.
Nothing like a little meaningless distraction to keep us all entertained while the world spins out of control.
Exactly!
Isn't it ironic that most or all of the posts regarding government spending and debt are frrom the same people that beat the war drums for Iraq and whole-heartedly supported the Bush tax cuts which collectively got us into the upward debt spiral. Nothing like closing the barn door after the horse is in the next county.
Some things are better left a mystery don't you think?
What a complete waste of taxpayer's dollars - and this will cost the American people. Maybe they'll find America's morals and common sense at the bottom of the sea, too.
Until you can point to a copy of the proposed budget that illustrates what amount of money that the U.S. government is contributing to this PRIVATELY funded venture. Your argument is invalid. Your "Gut Instinct" that tells you this will cost the tax payers is not enough to warrant the stink that you are raising over this.
This is Hillary-ous! Just how transparently phony can this rescue of America's females from the Republican 'War on Women' get? It sounds like the exploration has been doing just fine without the Obama Administration, but O can't let such a political opportunity go when it plays into the top strategy. It should be seen as shameful opportunism, but sadly, it won't. Forget about the unsustainable wars, debt and social safety net, we are going to find the remains of our greatest female aviator because we care!
In a time where women were limited to what they were allowed to do...In a time where women were shown their place and told " you can't do that" she was a hero and inspiration to many!! She took on the boys club and proved not only was she brave but she was more capable then most men. She opened doors for women,allowing girls to dream big and not back down from a challange. We learned a lot from her flights that have shaped the industry even today.
It's a honorable endeavor to bring her home where she belongs. I believe we owe it to her memory.
I wonder how much sex they had on the Island before they vanish.
For a country in such bad financial shape, why are we waisting the effort now. Put a real effort into lowering engergy cost and medical cost. Tax payers should be fighting back. Our nation will fall from within, no one will need to fire a missle at us. We are trying to destroy ourselve. We keep putting these idiots in office and expecting things to change. The republicans can't even find some one worthy to run for office and democrats are worse. Maybe since our jobs are overseas and in mexico it may be possible to get our politicians from there, we now know that they don't have to be a citizen of the usa.
why are we spending money (public or private) on this dead dyke?
To E-8989685 and your dunb a** comment the military "get every benefit imaginable". So they have health and dental, they no longer have a retirement fund, they have to pay into a 401K if they want retirement. They spend years away from their families and friends, they sleep in Un Godly places, they have no toilets in some of their war zones, they get shot at, and combat pay is nothing to write home about. But they do give you the benefit to sit safely here in America and shoot your mouth off!!!!!!!!!
US Army Mom and damn proud of my son!!!!!!!!!!
some of the comments here are beyond belief...some of you need to "Get a life"...step back and take a deep breath...go back to decaf...geee...
we need to realize that any reference to GENDER needs to be abandoned...after all we ARE in the ENLIGHTENED age are we not? there should be NO MENTION of gender, sexual oreintation, race, creed, national orgin. ergo...there is no need to espouse the belief there is this mythical "War on women" or "Seeking the womens vote" now...speak about the search for a lost pilot and navigator
Thank God Ms. Earhart was white, or most of you bigots would have forgotten her name by now. She was breaking records when most women were being beaten into submission by there husbands . We owe it to all women to find her, and know what happen to this GREAT American. Because of women like her, all women found their voice. It never ceases to amaze me how strong women scare weak men, even after they are dead!
Yeah, this is a great mystery that like the titanic needs to be solved. With all our high tech wizard machines I don't see why we can't solve it now. Still if they crashed landed on one of those islands there chances where slim to none.
Great...while they are out there, maybe they can find our missing President as well !!!
There are a lot of used tea bag logic posted here opined
about responsibility. Directed mostly at
poor women and their kids, who seem to be the daily target of the used tea
bags.
Lets talk about responsibility. Ms. Earhart made lots of reckless decisions,
including ditching the important Morse Code device, against strong advise not
to do so, so that she could carry a few
extra liters of gas. When the batteries
of her radio failed, she was left lost in the great expanse of the Pacific
Ocean.
It would be the world's
greatest lost cause to expect the dodo birds that post here to stick to the
subject.
Instead we get comments advising the world, "I choose to
have two kids so you should do the same"
lots of mindless used tea bag crap, not a single person concluding that
Ms. Earhart was responsible for her own demise.
Go ahead and collapse my comment. You will note that like Fiesty, I am not
following the herd.
This time the Obama administration can find someone missing for a long time and not have to send in the Navy Seals to take them down.
They're not going to spend a single penny of federal money on this are they? I can think of a few other priorities, including keeping our children and grandchildren from going deeper into debt. If Hillary wants to volunteer her time, fine -- but no State Department funds on this. Please.
E 8989685--- Your statements about the military are so far left I can't believe I read it. My Son is in the military and has been in for 25 yrs and I know what He makes and what he has and the sacrifices His wife and children are making right now as He is in Afghanistan, again, after 3 tours in Iraq. He deserves, as do all military personnel, any thing good that comes there way. I hope you can pull your head out long enough to see how asinine your statements are including the GOP wanting to start WW3. God must love FOOLS as He made so many of them, of course you are probably an obuma lover too, so beyond any help.
Why didn't they show the inhanced photo so we could see what they say might be in the picture?
What a waste of time and money. Why not use the money to feed and shelter the homeless or some other way to help someone in need in this country. The plane went down over 70 years ago . Let it go, there is no hope she is still alive. Besides who even cares most young people never heard of her anyway nor do they care.
I enlarged the picture . It looks like a bouy or a pole to mark the reef. What a con job. People will do anything to get funding to play and get out of working for a living. What a waste.
My great grandmother lived in that time, but she was a MINORITY, and didn't have the RIGHT to do things like this great lady did. Oh yes, minoriites flew planes back in those days too, and a lot of air ports REFUSE to let minorities land.
Someone stated money be spent on this is wasted. The US is not spending any money on this, they are giving logistical support. IMO, they should put a 2 or 3 million into this search, along with all the logistical support. This was a great lady, and she was brave. I wish all people had the right to do great things back in those times.