Wreckage of Pan Am Clipper found more than 70 years after plane crash – National
The bodies of the Pan Am plane that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Puerto Rico more than 70 years ago have been found in an accident that has shaped commercial airline safety procedures.
Last month, explorers found the wreckage of Flight 526A that crashed in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in April 1952, en route to New York City, using sonar to locate the fuselage, which was 2,000 feet underwater.
The Clipper Endeavor, which was about the size of a Boeing 737, was carrying 69 passengers and crew when it landed heavily in water after losing both engines less than 10 minutes after takeoff, according to the Air Sea Heritage Foundation, which announced the discovery.
Everyone initially survived the crash, but 52 died when the plane’s tail broke off and the fuselage sank.
This undated photo provided by the Pan Am Historical Foundation/John Johnson Collection on Tuesday, July 21, 2026, shows the Clipper Endeavor.
Pan Am Historical Foundation/John Johnson Collection via AP
The 17 passengers and crew who survived told investigators that the panic started when people struggled to find life jackets and the crew couldn’t find life rafts.
Get daily world news
Get daily Canadian news delivered to your inbox so you never miss the top stories of the day.
The crash set the precedent for today’s safety instructions, where flight attendants are responsible for spotting the exit and informing passengers of the location of life vests and how to inflate them.
“This was a catalyst, and it helped drive safety measures for better floatation equipment and pre-flight briefings,” aviation safety expert John Cox, a pilot and founder of Safety Operating Systems, told the Associated Press.
“So this is one step on the way to what we enjoy today as aviation safety. It was a complaint at the time,” he added.
It took extensive research to find the charred wreckage, but the lead-up to its discovery dates back to 2019, when Russ Matthews, an aviation and maritime historian and explorer and president of the Air Sea Heritage Foundation, read a blurb about a cargo tag from a dirty plane, Associated Beach reported.
While doing research on a different Pan Am incident at the time, a little evidence led him to delve deeper into the archives of Pan Am Airlines and the Coast Guard, where Matthews and his colleagues looked for clues about the plane’s watery grave. Reports from the Civil Aeronautics Board, the predecessor of the Federal Aviation Administration, also directed him to the crash site.
This undated composite photo provided by the Air/Sea Heritage Foundation and Deep Sea Vision on Tuesday, July 21, 2026, shows the wreck of the Clipper Endeavour.
Air/Sea Heritage Foundation and Deep Sea Vision via AP
Speaking about his research in a release by the Air Sea Heritage Foundation, Matthews said he was “surprised that such an important story has disappeared from public memory.”
“The story is so powerful and so impactful. We are all surprised and excited about this discovery but also humbled to remember what happened in that place so long ago,” he added.
The key to determining the damage lies in records from the Puerto Rico trial about the incident and a map drawn by trainee pilots, who estimated the plane’s location after seeing it go down during a training flight, as well as survivor testimony and real-time radio recordings.
An attempt to find the plane was interrupted in 2024 by bad weather, but Matthews and a team of volunteers working with his foundation are determined to make a second attempt. Working with undersea surveying company Deep Sea Vision, they used a military aircraft designed to find underwater mines to identify the wreckage, which was found by a drone during its initial search.
“There we were, and everything like that came together at that time: good weather, the right team, and the right equipment and the ship. So we took a shot at it,” Tony Romeo, CEO of Deep Sea Vision, told the AP.
Deep Sea Vision had previously led an unsuccessful six-month search for Amelia Earhart’s plane, but Romeo had a special interest in the Pan Am case because his father was an airline mechanic and pilot and the plane used in the search already had a Pan Am sticker on the side.
Its discovery comes before the 75th anniversary of its disappearance. Getting it in before the celebration was the goal, Matthews said.
In a statement on Instagram, Matthews recalled telling the group, “‘Next year is the 75th anniversary of the Clipper Endeavor disaster, so we really need to find this plane.’ And in June, we did. He further said that the discovery of this accident has also brought peace to the families of those who died in the accident.
“It means a lot to read the warm and heartfelt responses from the affected families and their loved ones who were on board flight 526A,” the statement read. “52 people lost their lives during the Clipper Endeavor disaster, and to be able to find their resting place and reconnect with their families and loved ones is deeply humbling and an honor,” it concluded.
— via files from The Associated Press
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
