World · 22 July 2026
Pan Am crash wreck found 74 years after disaster changed flight safety rules
David Wintzer via Wikimedia Commons (CC-BY-SA-4.0)
All 69 people on board survived the 1952 water landing off Puerto Rico, but only 17 were rescued after passengers struggled to find life jackets and life rafts. An expedition led by the Air/Sea Heritage Foundation found the aircraft nearly 2,000 feet underwater using an autonomous sonar drone. The crash led airlines to bring in pre-flight safety briefings and emergency demonstrations that are still required before every flight.
Reported by Sky News · How we write briefs