Wreckage of Pan Am plane that crashed killing 52 passengers is finally found after 74 years

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The wreckage of a devastating Pan Am plane crash that killed 52 people in 1952 has been found 2,000 feet underwater after nearly three-quarters of a century.

On Good Friday in 1952, the Pan American Airways passenger plane Clipper Endeavor took off from Puerto Rico bound for what is now JFK International Airport in New York City. 

The Douglas DC-4 aircraft, roughly equivalent in size to a modern Boeing 737, was carrying 64 passengers and five crew members. Just after takeoff, the plane lost both of its right-side engines, and it went down after 10 minutes in the air.

The pilots were forced to conduct a violent water landing, which everyone on the plane initially survived. 

However, because pre-flight safety briefings were not yet standard, chaos and panic engulfed the cabin, and 52 people drowned as the aircraft was pulled under the surface of the Atlantic in less than three minutes. 

Rescue crews and the US Coast Guard were only able to save five crew members and 12 passengers. The wreckage of the plane sank to the ocean floor and was lost for 74 years, unreachable due to its depth. 

But the wreckage was finally found on the evening of June 2 following a seven-year investigation by the Air/Sea Heritage Foundation in partnership with an Eco Minerals Company called Deep Sea Vision and the Discovery Channel’s series Expedition Unknown.

'Seeing the bright aluminum fuselage shining back at us from the ocean floor was a hugely emotional moment,' said Expedition Unknown host Josh Gates in a Warner Bros Discovery press release.

Russ Matthews, president and co-founder of the Air/Sea Heritage Foundation, began searching for the Clipper Endeavor in 2019 by looking into accident investigation reports and conducting surveys off the coast of San Juan.

He teamed up with Gates in 2024 for an episode of the Discovery Channel show and uncovered hidden evidence that crucially included a chart map created by US Air Force pilots who witnessed the crash.

That map narrowed down the search area, and a research vessel called Fugro Brasilis that was passing by agreed to stop by for a few days and assist in the search. 

The vessel possessed one of the world's most advanced autonomous underwater vehicles, owned by Deep Sea Vision, which was capable of scanning the ocean floor at depths of up to 20,000 feet while staying submerged for up to four days at a time.

The search team deployed the advanced underwater vehicle, which on its first run spotted the Clipper Endeavor lying on the ocean floor broken into two parts.

A follow-up photographic survey returned astonishing pictures that clearly showed the winged Pan American logo and the plane's name still legible on its battered fuselage, conclusively identifying the wreckage.

'When the images came back from the AUV, we all gasped,' said Gates, the Expedition Unknown host.

The tragic crash led to major reforms in aviation safety protocols, leading the forerunner to the Federal Aviation Administration, the Civil Aeronautics Board, to make preflight safety briefings and emergency demonstrations mandatory.

It is believed that the reforms have likely saved thousands of lives in the nearly 75 years since the Clipper Endeavor went down. 

'Every time you step onboard an airplane today, you are safer because of what happened to her and her passengers three quarters of a century ago,' said Gates. 

'I hope this historic discovery brings some peace to the families of those aboard and serves to remind the flying public today of the debt of remembrance we owe to this fateful flight,' he added. 

The Air/Sea Heritage Foundation is coordinating with the Puerto Rican government to expand protections of the crash site and has advocated for creating a memorial to those who died. 

The foundation's staff has also been in contact with the only two known living survivors of the tragedy. 

The full story behind the discovery of the Clipper Endeavor's wreckage will be featured in an episode of Expedition Unknown set to air later this year.