Wreckage of Pan Am plane that crashed killing 52 finally found decades later

Wreckage of Pan Am plane that crashed killing 52 finally found decades later The 1952 Pan American Airways plane crash killed 52 people - now the wreckage has been found 2,000 feet underwater The wreckage of a New York-bound plane which infamously crashed in 1952, killing 52 people, has been found 74 years from the tragedy. The incident involved a Pan American Airways plane which took off on Good Friday from Puerto Rico. Its destination was what is today JFK International Airport in New York City. The aircraft, known as the Clipper Endeavour, had 64 passengers and five crew members onboard. Just 10 minutes after taking off, the plane, which was of a size similar to a modern Boeing 737, lost both of its engines on the right side. A violent water landing was conducted by the aircraft's pilots into the Atlantic Ocean with all onboard initially surviving. At the time, pre-flight safety briefings were not standard and so everything descended into chaos during the incident. A total of 52 people drowned as the plane was pulled underwater in less than three minutes, Daily Mail reports. The wreckage remained on the ocean floor for 74 years due to the unreachable depth it had sunk to. On June 2 this year, however, it was finally found after an investigation spanning seven years and conducted by the Air/Sea Heritage Foundation in partnership with an Eco Minerals Company called Deep Sea Vision and the Discovery Channel’s series Expedition Unknown. The series' host, Josh Gates, said: "Seeing the bright aluminum fuselage shining back at us from the ocean floor was a hugely emotional moment." A research vessel called Fugro Brasilis assisted the search as it benefited from one of the most advanced autonomous underwater vehicles in the world. The machine was capable of scanning the ocean floor at depths of up to 20,000 feet, being able to remain submerged for up to four days at a time. The vehicle then spotted the Clipper Endeavour on the ocean floor broken into two parts.