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75 Years Later The
Search For Amelia Earhart Resumes By Bill Goldston |
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March 23, 2012 - Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan disappeared on July 2, 1937, during their attempt to circumnavigate the globe, and the U.S. Government began one of the most intensive searches for a missing person in history.
The U.S. Navy covered 150,000 square miles of open-ocean
in 6-7 days, while the State Department coordinated with
foreign governments involved in the search. However, the
arduous search was called off on July 18th of that year,
and it seemed the truth about where the plane went down
would be forever lost to the waves of the Pacific. Until Tuesday, when Ric Gillespie, Executive Director of The International Group for Historic Airplane Recovery (TIGHAR), explained the new discovery, in a re-enhanced photo, of what appears to be the landing gear sticking out of the water along the coast of the island of Nikumaroro, now part of Kiribati. |
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The
picture was taken a few months after Earhart?s disappearance,
and the landing gear appears to be that of the type of plane
that Earhart flew. So this week, Secretary of State Hilary
Clinton, Secretary of Transportation and Ray LaHood, joined
historians, scientists and salvagers from The International
Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery to reopen the search for
Earhart's Lockheed Electra.
Advised by
Titanic discoverer Dr. Robert Ballard and with the aid of the
Kiribati Foreign Secretary Tessie Lambourne, these researchers
are planning a 10 day mission, funded by private investors, to
test these theories and see if they can find Earhart?s long-lost
plane, and ultimately the remains of Earhart herself.
Earhart
was a pioneer both for women and for the still young field of
aviation. Her adventures are still an inspiration for girls and
young women around the world who dream of becoming pilots or
astronauts. And it doesn't seem like a stretch to say that
pioneers such as Earhart helped pave the way for the
achievements of Secretary Clinton and Foreign Secretary
Lambourne. As Secretary Clinton remarked, ?Earhart embodied the spirit of an America coming of age and increasingly confident, ready to lead in a quite uncertain and dangerous world. When she took off on that historic journey, she carried the aspirations of our entire country with her.? |