Cousin joins search for Amelia Earhart

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BOULDER, Colo., April 12 (UPI) -- The cousin of long-lost pilot Amelia Earhart has been invited to help look for her plane in the Pacific Ocean between Australia and Hawaii.

The 22-year-old University of Colorado student has the same name as her famous third cousin, whose plane disappeared near Howland Island on July 2, 1937, during a round-the-world trip.

Earhart told the Boulder (Colo.) Daily Camera she contacted deep-sea reconnaissance group Nauticos Corp. when she read that the Cape Porpoise, Maine, organization was planning a spring mission near Howland Island to search for the wreckage of the plane flown by America's Sweetheart.

The would-be pilot said she has high hopes for the search.

"I think it would probably be a pretty pivotal moment in my life and extremely important to my family" if the wreckage were found, Earhart said.