21 Mar 2012

New push to find Amelia Earhart's plane

4:24 pm on 21 March 2012

Explorers are to begin a new push to find the remains of famed aviator Amelia Earhart's long-lost plane.

Analysts say an old photo shows part of her doomed Lockheed Electra, and the July search is set for Kiribati's Nikumaroro island.

The search will be privately funded, but the US state department helped negotiate with Kiribati.

Ms Earhart attempted to circumnavigate of the globe along the equator in 1937, but disappeared in July of that year.

She and her navigator, Fred Noonan, left Papua New Guinea on a flight to Howland Island and were never seen again.

The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has joined scientists and aviation archaeologists to unveil the expedition.

"Now it has been 75 years since she set out in that twin engine Lockheed Electra, to be the first pilot man or woman to fly around the World along the longest equatorial route. Her legacy resonates today for anyone girls or boys who dream of the stars."

The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.