Pan Am Flight 256 wreckage found off Puerto Rico

The wreckage of a Pan American Airways flight that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean in 1952, an event that spurred major aviation safety reforms, has been discovered off the northern coast of Puerto Rico. An expedition team located the aircraft, a Douglas DC-4 named the Clipper Endeavor, on the ocean floor at a depth of approximately 2,000 feet on June 2, 2026.

The discovery, announced on July 21, 2026, concludes a seven-year search led by the AirSea Heritage Foundation in partnership with the exploration firm Deep Sea Vision and the Discovery Channel series Expedition Unknown. The team utilized an advanced autonomous underwater drone, which located the wreckage broken into two sections during its first pass over a targeted 10-square-nautical-mile search zone. High-resolution sonar images confirmed the find, clearly showing the plane's iconic winged Pan Am logo and name.

Pan Am Flight 256 departed San Juan, Puerto Rico, on April 11, 1952-Good Friday-bound for what is now John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. Shortly after takeoff, the aircraft lost both engines on its right side. The pilots executed a controlled water landing roughly nine minutes into the flight. All...