Discovery Channel team locates Pan Am plane lost off Puerto Rican coast in 1952, NBC’s ‘Today’ reports

By Rebekah Riess, CNN

(CNN) — Seventy-four years after a Pan Am flight crashed into the water off Puerto Rico, costing 52 passengers their lives, a Discovery Channel team has found the wreckage sitting on the ocean floor, NBC’s “Today” reported exclusively on Tuesday.

The Pan Am plane, named the “Clipper Endeavor,” had taken off from San Juan, Puerto Rico, on April 11, 1952, and was bound for New York. On board were 64 passengers and five crew members, but shortly after takeoff, the pilots lost both right-side engines and the plane crashed into the ocean minutes later.

Though the plane had life rafts and personal floatation devices, many passengers remained in their seats, and 52 people went down with the plane and died, according to the Pan Am Historical Foundation. Only 17 people survived.

Though the general location of the crash was known, the exact location of the wreckage at the bottom of the ocean wasn’t.

Last month, a Discovery Channel team, using an autonomous underwater drone, located the wreckage on the ocean floor some 2,000 feet below the surface, NBC reported. The governor’s office in Puerto Rico has been informed, according to NBC.

Discovery Channel intends to cover the finding in an “Expedition Unknown” episode in the fall, NBC reported.

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