Plane That Crashed in 1952 Finally Found Off the Coast of Puerto Rico

Researchers have discovered the wreck of a Pan Am passenger plane that crashed off the coast of Puerto Rico in 1952, killing 52 people.

The Clipper Endeavor, a DC-4 aircraft, lost power shortly after takeoff and went down in the Atlantic. Remarkably, all passengers and crew survived the belly landing on the water - but most drowned as the plane rapidly sank. Only 17 people survived.

In the wake of the disaster, commercial aviation introduced mandatory pre-flight safety demonstrations for passengers, a practice now standard worldwide.

The wreck was located last month at a depth of 600 meters using an underwater drone operated by Deep Sea Vision, an ocean exploration company. The discovery was documented for the Discovery Channel program Expedition Unknown.

Earlier search efforts in 2024 using sonar equipment had failed due to bad weather. The crash site coordinates had been noted in 1952 by Air Force pilots training nearby who witnessed the accident, but the wreck itself remained untouched on the ocean floor for 74 years.