The Clipper Endeavour is a Douglas DC4, almost the size of a Boeing 737. Photo courtesy Pan Am Historical Foundation
A Pan Am aircraft that crashed at sea 74 years ago and lead to safety evacuation briefs on airliners has been found.
The wreckage of flight 526A has now been found 600 metres down on the Atlantic Ocean floor, off the coast of Puerto Rico.
The remains of the aircraft was found on June 2 by a search team using high resolution sonar; confirmation beyond doubt came when images of the wreckage revealed the airline logo and aircraft’s name.
Aviation and maritime historian Russ Matthews is president and co-founder of the Air/Sea Heritage Foundation who has led and worked on expeditions to find ship and aircraft wrecks around the globe.
“I first learned about Clipper Endeavor while researching an entirely different Pan Am crash and was astonished that such an important story had largely faded from public memory,” he explains.
“The story is so powerful and the impact so far reaching. We are all stunned and elated by this discovery yet also humbled to remember what happened in that place so long ago.”
BACKGROUND: On April 11, 1952, the Pan Am Douglas DC-4 (Clipper Endeavor) took off from San Juan for New York with five crew and 64 passengers onboard. Shortly after take-off, the four engines failed and the aircraft crashed into heavy seas. Everyone survived the crash but there had been no safety briefing with language barriers and no co-ordinated evacuation. As aircraft sank in less than three minutes and despite the efforts of US Coast Guard and air force rescuers, only 12 passengers and crew survived as 52 passengers drowned. The tragedy prompted the US Civil Aeronautics Board (the forerunner to today’s Federal Aviation Administration or FAA) into reforming the air travel industry such as implementing preflight safety briefings and evacuation procedures.
In 2019, Matthews began to pore through accident investigation reports and conducted surveys off the coast of San Juan.
Teaming up with explorer Josh Gates of Discovery Channel’s Expedition Unknown channel to produce a show led them to Puerto Rico’s archives they were to find a trove of long hidden evidence including survivor testimonies, communications transcripts, expert analysis and a chart map created by US Air Force pilots who saw the Pan Am airliner’s crash and guided rescue crews to the scene.
Earlier this year, the research vessel Fugro Brasilis, sailing from Trinidad to the Gulf of Mexico, stopped off San Juan to help out; onboard was one of the world’s most advanced autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV), owned by marine surveyers and miners Deep Sea Vision.
The AUVs are free-swimming drones with sensors that can be programmed to scan vast distances on the ocean floor as deep as 6000 metres for up to four days.
“Finding this aircraft is about more than locating a wreck; it’s about reconnecting people with history,” Deep Sea Vision CEO Tony Romeo says.
“Every time you step onboard an airplane today, you are safer because of what happened to Clipper Endeavor and her passengers three quarters of a century ago,” says Gates.
“This aircraft vanished beneath the waves, and the legacy of those aboard was at risk of being lost with it. When the images came back from the AUV, we all gasped.
“Seeing the bright aluminum fuselage shining back at us from the ocean floor was a hugely emotional moment. I hope this historic discovery brings some peace to the families of those aboard and serves to remind the flying public today of the debt of remembrance we owe to this fateful flight.”
The team is now working with the Puerto Rican government on greater protection for the Pan Am wreck site and advocate for a memorial to those who died; they have contacted families who were directly affected by the tragedy, including the only two known living survivors.
