Amelia Earhart mystery draws in Hillary Clinton (VIDEO)
Amelia Earhart stands June 14, 1928 in front of her bi-plane called “Friendship” in Newfoundland.
The disappearance of Amelia Earhart over the South Pacific 75 years ago has drawn the interest — and funding help — of Hillary Rodham Clinton.
The Secretary of State announced a new $500,000 hunt for the American aviator's plane, according to the Daily Mail, and would meet meet with historians and scientists from The International Group for Historic (IGHAR) Aircraft Recovery, who are planning a trip to suspected crash site in July.
According to the Associated Press, a senior US official has said a new analysis of a photo of the island of Nikumaroro shows what could be a strut and wheel of Earhart's plane protruding from the water.
The group will visit the site off the remote island of Nikumaroro, in what is now the Pacific nation of Kiribati, between Hawaii and Australia, the Associated Press reported.
Earhart was with navigator Fred Noonan flying from New Guinea to Howland Island when they disappeared July 2, 1937, but multiple searches have failed to any locate the wreckage.
According to some, Earhart and Noonan may have landed on the island and survived for a short time.
One conspiracy theories — since debunked — had them working as US government agents when they were captured by the Japanese before World War II.
Others believe that bad weather caused the plane to run out of fuel, forcing Earhart to ditch in the ocean.
The mystery was the subject of a 2009 Hollywood film starring Hilary Swank and Richard Gere.
The new search will be financed through private funds, according to the Wall Street Journal, citing a US official as saying that the financiers had agreed to go ahead after "very intense photo analysis" by government and outside experts suggested that the project was "worth exploring."
It is being promoted as a celebration of the US' pan-Pacific ties.
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