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Autonomous Drone Finds Pan Am Wreckage
Coverage from CBS News, East Bay Times, and others
Articles
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The Topic
An autonomous underwater sonar drone located the fuselage and tail of Pan Am’s Clipper Endeavor in roughly 2,000 feet of water off Puerto Rico, 74 years after the 1952 crash. Researchers narrowed the search using archival records and historical weather data after an earlier attempt was disrupted by bad weather. The discovery highlights how autonomous sonar technology, including systems originally developed for undersea mine detection, can support difficult maritime investigations and recoveries.
First Article: 07/21/26
Latest Article: 07/22/26
Summary
- An autonomous sonar drone located the Clipper Endeavor’s fuselage and tail under about 2,000 feet of water.
- Researchers combined aviation, Coast Guard, Puerto Rico, and historical weather records to define a 10-square-nautical-mile search area.
- The drone found the wreckage on its first pass after a 2024 towed-sonar attempt was disrupted by bad weather.
- The 1952 crash killed 52 people after the aircraft sank within minutes despite 17 initial survivors.
- The crash is described as contributing to later improvements in life-vest instructions, flotation equipment, exit guidance, and preflight briefings.
- Deep Sea Vision supplied the underwater drone, whose technology was originally developed for military undersea mine-detection missions.
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