An aviation search team has found the wreckage of a plane that crashed in the Atlantic Ocean more than seven decades ago, the Discovery Channel reported in a TODAY exclusive.
The team, whose efforts will be chronicled in an upcoming episode of the Discovery Channel’s “Expedition Unknown,” discovered the Pan Am plane, dubbed the Clipper Endeavor, in about 2,000 feet of water off Puerto Rico. The plane crashed about 10 minutes after taking off from San Juan on April 11, 1952. There were sixty-nine passengers and crew on board; 52 people died, 17 survived.
Using sonar and high-definition imagery, the team found the Pan Am logo, landing gear and engine of the plane, solving a nearly 75-year-old aviation mystery and ending years of searching.
Pan Am Flight 256 was headed to New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport on Good Friday. Shortly after takeoff, both of the plane’s right engines failed. Nine minutes later the plane crashed.
Safety briefings for flight attendants were not yet standard on airplanes.
“There was no demonstration of where the exits were, where the flotation devices were. And so in all of this chaos and all of this panic, 52 people drowned in and around that plane,” “Expedition Unknown” host Josh Gates told TODAY.
The plane remained on the ocean floor for 74 years. Since 2019, the Air/Sea Heritage Trust has been searching for the wreckage.
“This was truly out of reach in 1952, and it took time for technology to catch up and be able to achieve the goal,” said Air/Sea Heritage Foundation President Russ Matthews.
Last month, Gates and Matthews were given the opportunity to use autonomous underwater drones, which are typically used for gas and mineral exploration, for two days to locate the aircraft.
“We were against the clock on this and knew we had sort of an idea, a pretty good box, a search box that we wanted to find,” Eco Minerals CEO Tony Romeo told TODAY.
The team managed to locate the plane on the first try.
After the Clipper Endeavor crash, pre-flight safety briefings became mandatory.
“Whether you’re going on vacation, heading home for the holidays or traveling for business, every time you get on a plane you owe a debt of gratitude to what happened with Clipper Endeavor,” Gates said.
The Clipper Endeavor episode “Expedition Unknown” will air in the fall.