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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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If we use left over stimulus money and hire out of work logistical support people, we can have a 2 for 1 benefit!
Personally, I think it is worth doing. I would like to know how the story did end for the 2 of them. This was a huge deal at the time and if the mystery can be solved, I say go for it.
We aren't in Bush's war zone anymore, we are in Obama's war zone. Now we assassinate. Not much has changed. Where is the outrage?
And Osama Bin Laden didn't asassinate 3000 innocent people that were just going to work, like you and I do everyday? The outrage is dealing with your narrow mind.
I agree with the majority of the posters here. What a waste of tax payers money when we have so much more to spend the money on to help with our debt and more. Logistics you can bet will cost more than the $500,000 the other group is putting up. Amelia Earhart has waited 75 years to be found........I am sure she wouldn't mind waiting a few more years. Maybe on the 100th anniversary of her disappearance.
Obama needs to quit wasting money as he has done since he got into office. Just do a search and learn how much money he has wasted since he has been in office. Especially vacations, 5 limosines and parties every chance they get. That is just a dip in the bucket of how they are wasting our money. I can't stand to even look at them because of the way they flaunt spending our hard working tax dollars.
Waste it may be but it's not even chicken feed compared to the bank bailouts, two wars, and tax cuts for the 1% - all pre-2008. At least the GM bailout saved jobs and paid back almost all of the money invested.
And if you want to go on about waste, look at how much is being spent on movies, sports stars, "reality" TV and so on. OK, it's technically private money but if the extreme right is so concerned about private charity why isn't there a call to, say, divert 10% of the profits from Twilight to something more worthy than keeping Hollywood moguls in their hot tubs?
The only thing for certain is, if they ever find any remains of Amelia, they'll still look better than Nancy Pelosi and Hi-liar-y Clinton put together.
we waste more money on stuff better left to private party's
About two or three months ago, there was a very interesting show on Discovery about this very same thing. They showed the bone fragments, part of a rubber soled shoe and other items as well as what looks to be part of a plane in shallow water.
Unfortunately, the backer of this project ran out of money. The US has supplied logistical support for the effort to find her, right after she went missing. I have mixed emotions about this as regardless of how much in private money is raised, it will still cost us plenty. Money better spent? I'm not sure.
What annoys me is that somehow it feels like a political move where our leader can put another notch in his gun. How did he get involved? With the exception of the original search teams, our government has not been involved from the get-go. It has all been private monies. i guess I am somewhat jaded, but I just find it strange.
MNSUE
I suggest it is you that needs to wake up and read the article. The Group is putting up $500,000, but the logistical support is being provided by the United States. In this case probably the US NAVY. That is going to cost millions for search and recovery, ships, and supply vessels. $500,000 won't buy a whole lot for support. It is probably paying the salaries of the researchers, investigators, etc. and not much more.
Maybe they will find " Waldo"
Personally, I could find a lot of uses for $500,000 and none of them include looking for egotistical pioneers who lost their lives doing something risky that no one asked them to do. I don't care if they are lost in the Pacific, the North Pole, Antarctica, Mt. Everest or Death Valley.
It would be good to know what actually happened to these pioneers of American aviation.
I think they're both on an island along with Elvis and Michael Jackson..yep, that's the ticket..
Do they think they'll find her alive?????
Not likely......she would be 115 years old.............way too old to fly around and make campaign speeches.
Here's the forward plan. After locating remains I will release my book confirming AE was a dysfunctional human being. Everyone will read it.
When Joe Biden was told about this, he was quoted as saying...."Thank God...I hope she's still alive"
Hey, we need something for the people to get excited about, and to forget the unemploment, the cost of gas and food, and all the other stuff they want us to forget about. Maybe they will use airforce 1 to go looking.
That would be a second feather in obama's cap: Osama and Earhart. Now if he could just find Elvis. He'd be da man. WOW
Bet they would never find Jimmie Hoffa. Mob and big union money made sure of that>
If Joe Biden can find his zipper in time he wouldn't be messing his pants so often.
I wonder what it cost your government so you could have your say on this blog. I mean think about it there is always government cost with every thing we do. Following your logic we should stop every thing until the debt is paid. haha I am glad we don't live with you in charge.
This is another attempt to get the female vote. How about a statue to Julia Child on the Washington Mall?
JXC....are you serious? In just 3 years Obama has managed to run up more debt than all the presidents from Washington to Reagan. He has increased the total national debt by 50% and you have the nerve to blame republicans? You liberals are more demented than I gave you credit for.
Actually not, google debt president by president for the last 70 years, Bush increased the debt from 5.4 trillion to 10.3 trillion, Obama inherited 3/4 of a trillion from Bush's bailout. Had there been no Bush tax cut and Bush wars, the debt would have been paid off in 2010. Do your research, you will find Carter had the lowest GDP/debt ratio of any pres in the last 70 years, Bush the highest.
Idk what I was watching (probably PBS or History channel of some sort) but one of the theories that they had on what happened to her remains were that Coconut Crabs took off with the bones..... Coconut crabs are HUGE!!!! Google image search them, scary sea monsters hahah
Listen to some of you! This is our national history... and a proud part of it. Time to find and return these brave souls... and recover what is left of the aircraft. They were aviators paving the way for us all. We sould celebrate this.
Paving the way for what. She did not complete her mission which is now going to cost millions to find out what happened 70 years ago. This was nothing more than a publicity stunt that went bad. I do not doubt her bravery, just her stupidity.
This is going to cost a lost of money. In the forthcoming expedition, Gillespie and his team will be concentrating on Earhart's plane. The underwater search will be carried by Phoenix International, the U.S. Navy's primary deep ocean search and recovery contractor.
They are not cheap, and $500,000 will be just a drop in the bucket.
Well one of them was a terrible navigator and the other a dead pilot...why would we waste money looking for two people who collectively were two of the worst fliers ever?
This is a perpect example why Oduma should not be reelected nor should he ever have been elected!!!! Is this really something the White House should be concerned with I saw the documentary thes people did it aired on The National Geographic Channel, it remined me of the donumentary with Geraldo Rivera and Al Capones vault total bull...
They did survive the crash, but Noonan ate her a few days later. He was then rescued by a troop of Tahitian Girl Scouts and eventually returned home in secret where he changed his name to Smoot and worked as a paperboy.