July 22, 2026
FOUND! Wreckage From Deadly Plane Crash That Made Every Flight You’ve Ever Taken, Safer
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RSS Feed The wreckage from one of the most significant plane crashes in history has been found 2 thousand feet down, on the ocean floor. A PanAm plane headed from San Juan to New York City, crash landed in the Atlantic Ocean back in 1952. Incredibly, everyone survived the initial impact, but unfortunately, panic and confusion led to 52 people drowning. The 17 survivors recounted how most passengers ignored the captain’s orders to deplane, staying buckled in their seats as the plane sank in just 3 minutes. The tragedy led to major changes that we see on every flight around the world today.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks, it is Wednesday, July twenty second. Your life vest is located under your seat. Pull the red strap to remove it from the pouch, slip it over your head and wrap the strap around your waist. Only inflate the vests once you're outside the aircraft by pulling on the red tab sound familiar. You need to know it, you need to remember it, and you need to think a group of folks right now who have been sitting at the bottom of the ocean for decades and we're just discovered and with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ aviation history that we are a part of frequently and had no idea about it.
00:00:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is a wild story. A discover, nearly discovery, nearly seventy five years in the making, is now being widely understood as the catalyst for what we do every time we get on a plane today. Someone put it like this, every time you step on bord a plane, you are safer because of what happened to this flight back in nineteen fifty two.
00:01:13
Speaker 1: Every single time a flight attendant stands in front of you and gives you that speech that let's be honest, you oftentimes ignore there's a reason it's there. It needs to be there, and we have these folks to think, Robes, this is a part of history. I did not know a plane crash some seventy plus years ago, a crash in which many people died but the majority survived. No excuse me. They all survived the crash but didn't survive the aftermath, Robes, and in part because maybe there wasn't a flight attendant that gave them a pre flight demonstration.
00:01:49
Speaker 2: That's right, and the reason why we're talking about this now. Searchers have finally found the wreckage from this nineteen fifty two pan Am flight. It was taking off on Good Friday from San Juan, Puerto Rico, headed to New York City. The flight lasted nine minutes because two of its four engines failed shortly after takeoff, and remarkably, the captain, the pilot of the ship, was able to crash land the plane in the Atlantic Ocean, kind of similar to what we saw from Captain Sully Sullenberger on the Hudson, except for this happened in the ocean in nineteen fifty two. So when it crashed landed, all the passengers there were sixty four passengers and five crew members, so sixty nine total. Everyone survived the initial.
00:02:42
Speaker 1: Crash, So why did this end up being a tragedy? Nonetheless, Rose, this is a fascinating story. And you just brought up the Hudson, the miracle on the Hudson, and we remember those images. We remember seeing flotation devices, we remember seeing people being brought remember something somewhat organized about people getting off that plane and Robes. You're thinking about what happens now, seventy plus years ago, they go down, they survive. It's sitting there, but a much different scene as described Brokes. It's playing out and it's one of absolute horror.
00:03:20
Speaker 2: Yes, because the seventeen survivors, twelve passengers and five crew members were ultimately rescued from this plane crash, and they told investigators what happened. First, they said, yep, everybody survived initially, but panic set in. Passengers struggled to find their life fests, the crew struggled to find the life rafts. And get this. The pilot told this to investigators later that most passengers refused to follow his order when they were going down, and he knew they were going down, he ordered everyone on board as soon as the plane splashes down, you need to abandon the aircraft. Most people stayed buckled in their seats, and the pilot said he forcibly threw some people out as the plane was sinking. It sunk in three minutes, and so some of the folks who survived were because he threw them out of their seats. There there was chaos, there was a language barrier, There were rough seats, and they said that people were afraid of sharks. That's why they didn't want to get out of their seats.
00:04:29
Speaker 1: I mean, good on him. First of all, what roges you got to survive the initial problem. We've can deal with sharks later. Right. You can understand in that fear in that moment. But Rose, we know so much more about aviation safety, we all do at that time. What were they aware of? What were they supposed to do? They thought their safest option was to stay in this big honk of metal.
00:04:50
Speaker 2: Yep, right, And back then you didn't have the flight attendant stand up and let people know before the flight took off, where the emergency exit exits are, where your flotation device is located, and how to inflate and when to inflate your flotation device. If no one goes over think about it, we actually can recite it. Probably for those of us who have flown weekly for years now, we probably could recite it, much like I could recite the Catholic Mass at some point because I went and heard it so often.
00:05:21
Speaker 1: Does I think, please insert the metal tip into the buckle lift. Yes, that's always a ridiculous book, Like I don't know how to use a seat seap belt.
00:05:30
Speaker 2: But it's those things that are It actually becomes in a way almost you go on autopilot because you have heard the instructions so often. So when the unthinkable happens and your flight crash lands on water, which I always kind of used to get a kick out of, like, oh, how does that? When does that ever happen? Actually, it happened, and it does happen. It's rare. But when it does, we have it ingrained in our heads. What to do. I know immediately, I don't even have to think. I know my flotation device is located under my seat. I know that. I know I have to pull a red tab to inflate it. It's just it's been it's been ingrained in our minds.
00:06:09
Speaker 1: You also know when the mask dropped down. Who's to put on first? Right? They you know these things. It is maybe muscle mem maybe we at this point rose we fly so much, but there is it is important. The one thing I do pay attention to still is where she tells me those exits are.
00:06:27
Speaker 2: That's the part I will and that is very important to know when you have to get off quickly. And again, this flight sunk. This airplane, the fuselage sunk within three minutes. That is not a lot of time when you think about the chaos and the panic that must have ensued as soon as they realized, holy hell, we made it. We landed on the ocean, and I'm still alive. So because fifty two people ended up dying because they did not know what to do, or they didn't do it quickly enough, or they were afraid to do it because this was the first time they were hearing what they should do. Because of this horrific tragedy, there were massive changes that are still in place today, including, yes, the emergency procedure demonstration that we see at the beginning of every single flight. There are pre flight briefings that take place between the flight attendant crew and the flight crew. There are better floatation equipment now on planes because of this crash. I knew none of this until the wreckage was just found and the story behind this plane came to light.
00:07:34
Speaker 1: I didn't know and didn't know anybody was looking for it. What an amazing piece of aviation history that is really really incredible. The technology they used, I guess it's always impressive, but we've seen so much over the past several decades. Hell, even when they discovered the records of the Titanic, we were learning so much about what their capabilities are. That they're able to do this is impressive that they wanted to do it. I think is worth saluting as well. This is now a cemetery, it's a graveyard. It's a burial site that you can't really visit, you can't really get to, and I don't think they're planning on doing anything to thee.
00:08:09
Speaker 2: They are not. There were thirty nine bodies that were never recovered, and the folks who were there on the search team said that this is the only grave marker they are likely to ever have, but there is some peace. They did speak to a daughter. She was five years old at the time. Her father died on this plane and she's eighty years old now, isn't that crazy? And she said that it did bring her peace to know where her father is, that the wreckage, that there's some sort of piece that comes over you, that washes over you when you know that his final his resting place is known, the location is known. It's something to hear about how it came about too, because the CEO of the Air Sea Heritage Foundation saw an article back in twenty nineteen about a luggage tag from this PanAm flight that washed up on Florida's shores, and it got him thinking. It got him kind of fascinated, and he spent the last seven years trying to figure out where to search for this wreckage. So he went through archives looking for clues about the crash site. He found a map that estimated the location because there were Air Force pilots training in the area when the plane went down, so they had a kind of a decent idea of where this wreckage might be. But then he was able to connect with the same group that is searching for Amelia Earhart's plane. They have an advanced underwater sonar drone that can reach depths of twenty thousand feet. She's called Miss Millie and they connected and on June second, so earlier this month, on their thirteenth pass of a ten I think it's a ten square nautical mile area they were searching, they found the wreckage and they were surprise, shocked, enthused, excited. They say it's largely intact because aluminum doesn't corrode. I didn't really know that. But the images are astonishing of this almost perfectly preserved plane two thousand feet below the ocean surface.
00:10:11
Speaker 1: See the technology that is wonderful and impressive roams. These are some really smart folks. Ten nautical miles out in all of that ocean, they narrowed it down and they get look, thirteen is a really low number.
00:10:27
Speaker 2: It was the first day they started searching. They had two days that they were going to search. They found it on day one.
00:10:33
Speaker 1: But their numbers were that precise. They're taking when readings from seventy years ago and applying it to tides, and that is now. That's the impressive part.
00:10:43
Speaker 2: It's very impressive. And what's cool about this story. When we come back, we will tell you why it is actually providing new hope to so many other families who have questions about what happened to their loved ones and where their final resting place maybe, and and and welcome back everyone did this episode of Amy and TJ, where a nearly seventy five year old mystery has finally now been discovered. They found where a nineteen fifty two pan Am flight went down, taking with it fifty two people who died unnecessarily. So they drowned because they panicked. They drowned because there wasn't instruction, They didn't know how to get off that plane quickly enough to be saved, and instead they went down when the plane after it crashed in the Atlantic Ocean, it sank within three minutes and took with it most of the passengers on board. But thanks to this incredible underwater sonar drone and of course all of the incredible folks who were able, as you just pointed out before the break Babe mapped out weather readings from seventy years ago and search and rescue details from the time when they were initially looking for the wreckage, they were able to pinpoint and find this plane that has been sitting two thousand feet below the ocean surface for seventy four years, and it brings closure to so many folks, and there is a particular flight, Malaysia Airlines three seventy disappeared twelve years ago with two hundred and sixty nine people on board. There have been searches and searches. There's one going on right now actually that just reopened a few weeks ago and is going on through I believe June of twenty twenty seven. They are trying to figure out what happened to Malaysia Airlines three seventy and they're thinking maybe this technology could actually provide the answers hope.
00:12:54
Speaker 1: So I hope this team is on it. Whoever put this all together is just impressive with the data that well the data they have, there's so much of it, but that they're able to piece it together the way they are that is impressive. And the Malaysia air my goodness, if they could ever solve that mystery, and it seems like they will one of these days. I don't know how closed they feel like they're coming, but they I'm glad to see. And eight governments continue to be behind it.
00:13:21
Speaker 2: Oh, it's multinational. Several countries are involved trying to find this plane. And this just for just I was reacquainting myself with the story of Malaysia Airline three seventy. But this was on March eighth, twenty fourteen. It disappeared twenty five minutes after takeoff, but the communication links and the transponder were manually deactivated, and then officials believe it flew for another seven hours, just based on satellite images, but it crashed somewhere in the southern Indian Ocean. They have it going around and yes, it circled back. It was confusing what had happened. Then someone, they believe the pilot, someone in the cockpit turned off the transponder. So people have had all sorts of theories that the pilot was maybe dying by suicide, maybe there were hijackers on the plane. But no one knows what happened to this plane, and it's been difficult to pinpoint even where it specifically went down. But hey, miss Millie, this sonar drone can go as low as twenty thousand feet below the ocean surface. That's incredible, and so a lot of people are saying, hey, let's get deep sea vision. Who's been looking for Amelia Earhart. Earhart's plane over into the Indian Ocean and let's get that incredible impressive radar to try and see if we can get some answers for so many families who just want to know what happened. And if you can get the plane, if you can find the fuselage, if you can find the black box. I don't know. Fourteen years later, could it still provides some answers as to what happened to all of those folks. That's the hope at least right now.
00:15:07
Speaker 1: They don't. We just like missing persons cases that go on for years and years and somebody has found it's important to highlight those stories because other people think, hey, there's still a chance for my story as well. This does, This does give a lot of hope. Hell, that was seventy something years Malaysia. Fourteen years is a long time, but still this is, this is and it's important for them to see this.
00:15:29
Speaker 2: It does. And speaking of seeing it, this entire discovery will be featured on Discovery Channel's Expedition Unknown. They went along with the search crews. Think about that, you know, you put your resources there. They're probably thinking we got a two day search. People have been looking for this plane for three quarters of a century. They probably thought it was highly unlikely. On day one, they've got their cameras there and boom they find the plane. It's pretty remarkable. They say, there's like thirty five thousand of this thing, so it'll be cool to watch and we'll all be able to see it on Expedition Unknown and look that also. You know, it's just sometimes it was that news article that created the interest for one man. So you have a big documentary like this on and it could spark someone else who has knowledge information technology and just frankly the interest and curiosity to keep searching for other planes like Malaysia three seventy. So this could go a long way. But again, we thank all of those folks on that plane for giving us the safety measures that we probably almost certainly take for granted every time we board a commercial flight. And with that everyone, we always appreciate you listening to us. I'm Amy Roboch alongside TJ. Holmes. We'll talk to you soon.
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks, it is Wednesday, July twenty second. Your life vest is located under your seat. Pull the red strap to remove it from the pouch, slip it over your head and wrap the strap around your waist. Only inflate the vests once you're outside the aircraft by pulling on the red tab sound familiar. You need to know it, you need to remember it, and you need to think a group of folks right now who have been sitting at the bottom of the ocean for decades and we're just discovered and with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ aviation history that we are a part of frequently and had no idea about it.
00:00:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is a wild story. A discover, nearly discovery, nearly seventy five years in the making, is now being widely understood as the catalyst for what we do every time we get on a plane today. Someone put it like this, every time you step on bord a plane, you are safer because of what happened to this flight back in nineteen fifty two.
00:01:13
Speaker 1: Every single time a flight attendant stands in front of you and gives you that speech that let's be honest, you oftentimes ignore there's a reason it's there. It needs to be there, and we have these folks to think, Robes, this is a part of history. I did not know a plane crash some seventy plus years ago, a crash in which many people died but the majority survived. No excuse me. They all survived the crash but didn't survive the aftermath, Robes, and in part because maybe there wasn't a flight attendant that gave them a pre flight demonstration.
00:01:49
Speaker 2: That's right, and the reason why we're talking about this now. Searchers have finally found the wreckage from this nineteen fifty two pan Am flight. It was taking off on Good Friday from San Juan, Puerto Rico, headed to New York City. The flight lasted nine minutes because two of its four engines failed shortly after takeoff, and remarkably, the captain, the pilot of the ship, was able to crash land the plane in the Atlantic Ocean, kind of similar to what we saw from Captain Sully Sullenberger on the Hudson, except for this happened in the ocean in nineteen fifty two. So when it crashed landed, all the passengers there were sixty four passengers and five crew members, so sixty nine total. Everyone survived the initial.
00:02:42
Speaker 1: Crash, So why did this end up being a tragedy? Nonetheless, Rose, this is a fascinating story. And you just brought up the Hudson, the miracle on the Hudson, and we remember those images. We remember seeing flotation devices, we remember seeing people being brought remember something somewhat organized about people getting off that plane and Robes. You're thinking about what happens now, seventy plus years ago, they go down, they survive. It's sitting there, but a much different scene as described Brokes. It's playing out and it's one of absolute horror.
00:03:20
Speaker 2: Yes, because the seventeen survivors, twelve passengers and five crew members were ultimately rescued from this plane crash, and they told investigators what happened. First, they said, yep, everybody survived initially, but panic set in. Passengers struggled to find their life fests, the crew struggled to find the life rafts. And get this. The pilot told this to investigators later that most passengers refused to follow his order when they were going down, and he knew they were going down, he ordered everyone on board as soon as the plane splashes down, you need to abandon the aircraft. Most people stayed buckled in their seats, and the pilot said he forcibly threw some people out as the plane was sinking. It sunk in three minutes, and so some of the folks who survived were because he threw them out of their seats. There there was chaos, there was a language barrier, There were rough seats, and they said that people were afraid of sharks. That's why they didn't want to get out of their seats.
00:04:29
Speaker 1: I mean, good on him. First of all, what roges you got to survive the initial problem. We've can deal with sharks later. Right. You can understand in that fear in that moment. But Rose, we know so much more about aviation safety, we all do at that time. What were they aware of? What were they supposed to do? They thought their safest option was to stay in this big honk of metal.
00:04:50
Speaker 2: Yep, right, And back then you didn't have the flight attendant stand up and let people know before the flight took off, where the emergency exit exits are, where your flotation device is located, and how to inflate and when to inflate your flotation device. If no one goes over think about it, we actually can recite it. Probably for those of us who have flown weekly for years now, we probably could recite it, much like I could recite the Catholic Mass at some point because I went and heard it so often.
00:05:21
Speaker 1: Does I think, please insert the metal tip into the buckle lift. Yes, that's always a ridiculous book, Like I don't know how to use a seat seap belt.
00:05:30
Speaker 2: But it's those things that are It actually becomes in a way almost you go on autopilot because you have heard the instructions so often. So when the unthinkable happens and your flight crash lands on water, which I always kind of used to get a kick out of, like, oh, how does that? When does that ever happen? Actually, it happened, and it does happen. It's rare. But when it does, we have it ingrained in our heads. What to do. I know immediately, I don't even have to think. I know my flotation device is located under my seat. I know that. I know I have to pull a red tab to inflate it. It's just it's been it's been ingrained in our minds.
00:06:09
Speaker 1: You also know when the mask dropped down. Who's to put on first? Right? They you know these things. It is maybe muscle mem maybe we at this point rose we fly so much, but there is it is important. The one thing I do pay attention to still is where she tells me those exits are.
00:06:27
Speaker 2: That's the part I will and that is very important to know when you have to get off quickly. And again, this flight sunk. This airplane, the fuselage sunk within three minutes. That is not a lot of time when you think about the chaos and the panic that must have ensued as soon as they realized, holy hell, we made it. We landed on the ocean, and I'm still alive. So because fifty two people ended up dying because they did not know what to do, or they didn't do it quickly enough, or they were afraid to do it because this was the first time they were hearing what they should do. Because of this horrific tragedy, there were massive changes that are still in place today, including, yes, the emergency procedure demonstration that we see at the beginning of every single flight. There are pre flight briefings that take place between the flight attendant crew and the flight crew. There are better floatation equipment now on planes because of this crash. I knew none of this until the wreckage was just found and the story behind this plane came to light.
00:07:34
Speaker 1: I didn't know and didn't know anybody was looking for it. What an amazing piece of aviation history that is really really incredible. The technology they used, I guess it's always impressive, but we've seen so much over the past several decades. Hell, even when they discovered the records of the Titanic, we were learning so much about what their capabilities are. That they're able to do this is impressive that they wanted to do it. I think is worth saluting as well. This is now a cemetery, it's a graveyard. It's a burial site that you can't really visit, you can't really get to, and I don't think they're planning on doing anything to thee.
00:08:09
Speaker 2: They are not. There were thirty nine bodies that were never recovered, and the folks who were there on the search team said that this is the only grave marker they are likely to ever have, but there is some peace. They did speak to a daughter. She was five years old at the time. Her father died on this plane and she's eighty years old now, isn't that crazy? And she said that it did bring her peace to know where her father is, that the wreckage, that there's some sort of piece that comes over you, that washes over you when you know that his final his resting place is known, the location is known. It's something to hear about how it came about too, because the CEO of the Air Sea Heritage Foundation saw an article back in twenty nineteen about a luggage tag from this PanAm flight that washed up on Florida's shores, and it got him thinking. It got him kind of fascinated, and he spent the last seven years trying to figure out where to search for this wreckage. So he went through archives looking for clues about the crash site. He found a map that estimated the location because there were Air Force pilots training in the area when the plane went down, so they had a kind of a decent idea of where this wreckage might be. But then he was able to connect with the same group that is searching for Amelia Earhart's plane. They have an advanced underwater sonar drone that can reach depths of twenty thousand feet. She's called Miss Millie and they connected and on June second, so earlier this month, on their thirteenth pass of a ten I think it's a ten square nautical mile area they were searching, they found the wreckage and they were surprise, shocked, enthused, excited. They say it's largely intact because aluminum doesn't corrode. I didn't really know that. But the images are astonishing of this almost perfectly preserved plane two thousand feet below the ocean surface.
00:10:11
Speaker 1: See the technology that is wonderful and impressive roams. These are some really smart folks. Ten nautical miles out in all of that ocean, they narrowed it down and they get look, thirteen is a really low number.
00:10:27
Speaker 2: It was the first day they started searching. They had two days that they were going to search. They found it on day one.
00:10:33
Speaker 1: But their numbers were that precise. They're taking when readings from seventy years ago and applying it to tides, and that is now. That's the impressive part.
00:10:43
Speaker 2: It's very impressive. And what's cool about this story. When we come back, we will tell you why it is actually providing new hope to so many other families who have questions about what happened to their loved ones and where their final resting place maybe, and and and welcome back everyone did this episode of Amy and TJ, where a nearly seventy five year old mystery has finally now been discovered. They found where a nineteen fifty two pan Am flight went down, taking with it fifty two people who died unnecessarily. So they drowned because they panicked. They drowned because there wasn't instruction, They didn't know how to get off that plane quickly enough to be saved, and instead they went down when the plane after it crashed in the Atlantic Ocean, it sank within three minutes and took with it most of the passengers on board. But thanks to this incredible underwater sonar drone and of course all of the incredible folks who were able, as you just pointed out before the break Babe mapped out weather readings from seventy years ago and search and rescue details from the time when they were initially looking for the wreckage, they were able to pinpoint and find this plane that has been sitting two thousand feet below the ocean surface for seventy four years, and it brings closure to so many folks, and there is a particular flight, Malaysia Airlines three seventy disappeared twelve years ago with two hundred and sixty nine people on board. There have been searches and searches. There's one going on right now actually that just reopened a few weeks ago and is going on through I believe June of twenty twenty seven. They are trying to figure out what happened to Malaysia Airlines three seventy and they're thinking maybe this technology could actually provide the answers hope.
00:12:54
Speaker 1: So I hope this team is on it. Whoever put this all together is just impressive with the data that well the data they have, there's so much of it, but that they're able to piece it together the way they are that is impressive. And the Malaysia air my goodness, if they could ever solve that mystery, and it seems like they will one of these days. I don't know how closed they feel like they're coming, but they I'm glad to see. And eight governments continue to be behind it.
00:13:21
Speaker 2: Oh, it's multinational. Several countries are involved trying to find this plane. And this just for just I was reacquainting myself with the story of Malaysia Airline three seventy. But this was on March eighth, twenty fourteen. It disappeared twenty five minutes after takeoff, but the communication links and the transponder were manually deactivated, and then officials believe it flew for another seven hours, just based on satellite images, but it crashed somewhere in the southern Indian Ocean. They have it going around and yes, it circled back. It was confusing what had happened. Then someone, they believe the pilot, someone in the cockpit turned off the transponder. So people have had all sorts of theories that the pilot was maybe dying by suicide, maybe there were hijackers on the plane. But no one knows what happened to this plane, and it's been difficult to pinpoint even where it specifically went down. But hey, miss Millie, this sonar drone can go as low as twenty thousand feet below the ocean surface. That's incredible, and so a lot of people are saying, hey, let's get deep sea vision. Who's been looking for Amelia Earhart. Earhart's plane over into the Indian Ocean and let's get that incredible impressive radar to try and see if we can get some answers for so many families who just want to know what happened. And if you can get the plane, if you can find the fuselage, if you can find the black box. I don't know. Fourteen years later, could it still provides some answers as to what happened to all of those folks. That's the hope at least right now.
00:15:07
Speaker 1: They don't. We just like missing persons cases that go on for years and years and somebody has found it's important to highlight those stories because other people think, hey, there's still a chance for my story as well. This does, This does give a lot of hope. Hell, that was seventy something years Malaysia. Fourteen years is a long time, but still this is, this is and it's important for them to see this.
00:15:29
Speaker 2: It does. And speaking of seeing it, this entire discovery will be featured on Discovery Channel's Expedition Unknown. They went along with the search crews. Think about that, you know, you put your resources there. They're probably thinking we got a two day search. People have been looking for this plane for three quarters of a century. They probably thought it was highly unlikely. On day one, they've got their cameras there and boom they find the plane. It's pretty remarkable. They say, there's like thirty five thousand of this thing, so it'll be cool to watch and we'll all be able to see it on Expedition Unknown and look that also. You know, it's just sometimes it was that news article that created the interest for one man. So you have a big documentary like this on and it could spark someone else who has knowledge information technology and just frankly the interest and curiosity to keep searching for other planes like Malaysia three seventy. So this could go a long way. But again, we thank all of those folks on that plane for giving us the safety measures that we probably almost certainly take for granted every time we board a commercial flight. And with that everyone, we always appreciate you listening to us. I'm Amy Roboch alongside TJ. Holmes. We'll talk to you soon.