An aviation search team has found the wreckage of a plane that crashed in the Atlantic Ocean more than seven decades ago. The team, whose efforts are chronicled in an upcoming episode of Discovery Channel’s “Expedition Unknown,” located the Pan Am aircraft, dubbed the Clipper Endeavor, some 2,000 feet in the water off Puerto Rico.
Crash Details
The plane went down about 10 minutes into its flight from San Juan on April 11, 1952. Sixty-nine passenger and crew members were onboard; 52 people died, and 17 survived. Using sonar and high-definition images, the team found the Pan Am logo, the plane’s landing gear and engine, solving a nearly 75-year aviation mystery and concluding years of search efforts.
Pan Am Flight 256 was headed to what is now known as John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City on Good Friday. Shortly after takeoff, pilots lost both of the plane’s right-side engines. Nine minutes later, the plane crashed. Flight attendant safety briefings were not yet standard on planes.
According to “Expedition Unknown” host Josh Gates, the lack of safety briefings contributed to the high number of fatalities. “There was no demonstration of where the exits were, where the flotation devices are. And so in all of that chaos and all that panic, 52 people drowned in and around this plane,” Gates said.
Search Efforts
The aircraft remained on the ocean floor for 74 years. Since 2019, the Air/Sea Heritage Foundation has been working on tracking down the wreckage. Last month, Gates and Air/Sea Heritage Foundation President Russ Matthews were presented the opportunity to use an autonomous underwater drone to locate the plane.
The team was able to spot the plane on its first attempt. After the crash of the Clipper Endeavor, pre-flight safety briefings became mandatory. The “Expedition Unknown” episode about the Clipper Endeavor is scheduled to air in the fall.
Original reporting: NBC10 Boston — read the source article.
