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Wreckage of a Pan Am plane that crashed off Puerto Rico's coast nearly 75 years ago has been found on the ocean floor, search teams scouting for the long-lost aircraft announced on Tuesday, July 21.
The passenger aircraft, dubbed the Clipper Endeavor, crashed and sank into the Atlantic Ocean on April 11, 1952, just minutes after it took off from the island's eastern capital of San Juan.
The plane, roughly the size of a modern Boeing 737, was bound for New York's Idlewild Airport (now JFK) when it suffered engine failure just after noon local time, according to the Pan Am Historical Foundation. It carried 64 passengers and five crew members. Seventeen people survived the crash.
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"I've got some incredible breaking news to share," Josh Gates with the Discovery Channel's "Expedition Unknown" said Tuesday in a video posted on X. "Viewers may remember in 2024 we joined the search for the Pan Am airways passenger plane ... this accident changed aviation forever. It led to sweeping changes including the introduction of the now mandatory pre-flight safety briefing."
According to a news release, the Douglas DC-4 aircraft was discovered on the evening of June 2, using high-resolution sonar.
Gates said he and search teams from the nonprofit Air/Sea Heritage Foundation and Deep Sea Vision, a water exploration company based in Charleston, South Carolina, located the plane's wreckage nearly 2,000 feet down on the ocean floor, "largely intact."
What happened to the Clipper Endeavor?
Under the command of veteran Capt. John C. Burn, the plane took off at 12:11 p.m. local time, according to information from the airline's Historical Foundation, before suffering engine failure on its right side.
"All people aboard initially survived the impact, which sheared off the aircraft’s tail but left the main cabin intact," the release reads. "Yet with no safety briefing provided, a significant language barrier, and no coordinated evacuation procedure in place, passengers faced chaos, confusion, and heavy seas as the aircraft flooded and sank in less than three minutes."
Although the aircraft was equipped with life rafts and personal floatation devices for all on board, most of the passengers remained in their seats, the release continues. "Despite swift and heroic action by rescue teams from the U.S. Coast Guard and Air Force, only 12 passengers and five crew members were saved."
The Air/Sea Heritage Foundation will work with Puerto Rico’s government to expand protections for the wreck site and to create a memorial for those who died, according to the release.
More details about the discovery will be featured in an in-depth special episode of "Expedition Unknown" later this year, Gates said.
Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at [email protected] and follow her on X @nataliealund.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Lost 1952 Pan Am plane found off Puerto Rico coast nearly 75 years later
