The wreckage of a Pan American Airways passenger plane that crashed in 1952 has been located on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean after a seven-year investigation led by the Air/Sea Heritage Foundation in partnership with the Discovery Channel, according to a recent press release.
On 11 April 1952, a Pan Am flight took off from San Juan, Puerto Rico, bound for New York. Shortly after take-off, the aircraft lost power on two engines and could not maintain altitude, forcing the pilot to carry out an emergency water landing.
Everyone survived the initial impact, but "with no safety briefing provided, a significant language barrier, and no coordinated evacuation procedure in place, passengers faced chaos, confusion, and heavy seas as the aircraft flooded and sank in less than three minutes," the foundation said.
As a result, only 17 of the 69 people on board survived.
The tragedy prompted the Civil Aeronautics Board, a predecessor to the Federal Aviation Administration, to introduce mandatory pre-flight safety briefings and emergency procedure demonstrations, the foundation added.
Finding the wreckage of the Clipper Endeavor became a seven-year mission for Russ Matthews, president and co-founder of the non-profit Air/Sea Heritage Foundation, who played a central role in the project.
"We had to wait a couple of years to get our shot," Matthews said in an interview, explaining the delay in the investigation. He said the water where the aircraft sank was too deep for divers to reach the wreckage. Harsh weather conditions and the coronavirus pandemic also contributed to the delay.
Finally, in June, a search team from Deep Sea Vision found the wreckage of the DC-4 using high-resolution sonar and autonomous underwater drones nearly 2,000 feet beneath the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Puerto Rico.
Read more:
Russia has violated an energy ceasefire announced by U.S. President Donald Trump, Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelen...
Here's your AnewZ Daily Brief for 12 October 2026 with the top five natural disasters happening around the world. ...
One person was killed and nearly a dozen hurt in a new attack Riyadh's international airport on Sunday, Saudi ...
The explosion at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh on Saturday afternoon killed at least 12 people and injured a further 309, according to Saudi Arabia’s Civil Aviation Authority. The airport remains closed until further notice.
Yemen's Houthis renewed warning to airlines, airport workers, and travellers against using Saudi airports, saying the warning should be taken seriously and that the kingdom “bore responsibility for failed interceptions”, a day after an attack on Riyadh's international airport that killed 12 people.
One person was killed and nearly a dozen hurt in a new attack Riyadh's international airport on Sunday, Saudi authorities reported, a day after a strike claimed by Yemen's Houthis that killed 13 people and wounded more than 300.
The Houthi movement has escalated their attacks on Saudi Arabia, targeting the airport in Riyadh and other cities, killing more than a dozen people.
Ukraine is ready to stop attacks on Russian oil refineries if Moscow also halts strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday.
Azerbaijan is seeking to attract more European visitors by improving air connectivity and raising its profile as an international tourism destination, with a new direct route between Brussels and Baku expected to support those efforts.
Saudi Arabia is opening up to more international travellers as tourism expands beyond religious travel. In Riyadh, historic landmarks stand alongside new developments and a rapidly changing skyline, while AlUla and Diriyah offer a glimpse into the kingdom’s heritage.
Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan are considering restoring passenger ferry services across the Caspian Sea, six years after the route was suspended.
Flights across some of Britain's busiest airports were thrown into chaos on Tuesday after a technical failure at air traffic control provider NATS disrupted the system used to process flight data.
Investigators said they have recovered the flight data and cockpit voice recorders from an Amazon Prime Air cargo plane that overran the runway and crashed while landing at Miami International Airport on Sunday (6 September), killing five people on the ground.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment