All language subtitles for Expedition.Unknown.S14E03

[Russ]
PanAm defined air travel.

And this accident
changed aviation forever.

And yet it has been
almost completely forgotten.

[Russ] Shortly after takeoff,

he hears what he thinks
are explosions.

Nobody knows what to do.

So now I presume it's chaos.

We also find information
that can lead us

to where this happened.

We've actually discovered
here in the archive a map

showing the route
of the plane,

including where they think
it went down.

That indicates
the crash location?

Yes.

So this aircraft is just
sitting in the deep somewhere?

[Russ] That's right.

Just waiting to be found.

[Josh] Show me this map.

What did you find
in the archives?

[Russ] This is it.

Or the technology
we're bringing to bear,

this is going to give us
the best chance

to find Clipper Endeavor.

Conditions don't look great.

Wind is picking up.

Getting bad out.

Can we sonar scan in this?

[man]
We're going to go for it.

[Josh] There's something
wrong out there.

Ooh, what is that?

[Russ] Let's see what it is.

Heading down.

Oh, oh, oh, something there.

What is that?

[woman]
Please take a moment to find
the exit nearest to you.

In the unlikely event
of a water landing,

you'll find a flotation device
beneath your seat.

We hear this announcement
on every flight.

Many people tune it out.

But the pre-flight
safety briefing

has saved countless lives.

And yet,
it wasn't always there.

We can trace its origin
back to one tragic accident.

On April 11, 1952,
PanAm Airways Clipper Endeavor

departs from San Juan,
Puerto Rico,

a routine flight bound for
New York with 69 souls aboard.

And nine terrifying
minutes later,

the plane crashes
into the Atlantic.

Miraculously,
everyone on board
survives the impact.

And that could and should be
the end of the story.

But the passengers haven't
received a safety briefing.

And many panic.

In the chaos, 52 people drown.

This disaster
changed aviation forever.

Every time you fly,
you are safer

because of what happened
to this plane

and her passengers
70 years ago.

Yet despite the small area in
which it could have crashed,

Clipper Endeavor
has never been found.

A phantom lost
in incredibly deep water

thousands of feet
beneath the waves.

But all that may be
about to change.

A group of aircraft hunters
known as Air Sea Heritage

has just discovered
long-lost documents

and forgotten
eyewitness accounts.

Pinpointing the location
of the plane

and with a state-of-the-art
research vessel

armed with
high-resolution sonar

and a remotely
operated vehicle,

the team is about to launch
a mission to scour the seabed

off the coast of Puerto Rico.

So ladies and gentlemen,
please fasten your seatbelts

and place your seatbacks
and tray tables

in their full
upright position.

We'll be arriving shortly
in San Juan in search

of a legendary lost aircraft,
the Clipper Endeavor.

The past is all around us.

Oh, this is crazy.

A world of mystery...

This is a plane.

-[man] Yeah.
-[laughs]

...danger...

We are about to be underwater.

Whoa!

...and adventure.

It's just straight down!

Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!

I travel to the far corners
of the Earth

to uncover where legends end.

[screams, laughs]

...and history begins.

Okay, let's punch in.

I'm Josh Gates,

and this
is Expedition Unknown.

Hola from sunny San Juan,
Puerto Rico,

where my search for
the lost Clipper Endeavor
is officially on.

Spanish for "rich port,"
Puerto Rico is exactly that.

A swashbuckling stunner and a
treasure trove of history.

Nope, it's still not a state

and still not sure
it wants to be.

But this is the only
American territory

that Christopher Columbus
ever actually visited.

The pastel painted streets
of old San Juan

are bursting with color,
a healthy dose of humidity,

and Caribbean flavor.

And keeping guard
over the city

is a 500-year-old
Spanish fortress at Morro Bay.

Back in the 1950s,
San Juan was in the midst

of one of its
many transformations.

As the economy shifted
from agriculture to industry,

hundreds of thousands
of Puerto Ricans

left seeking higher wages.

Now many of them
landed in New York.

And for more on that,
see West Side Story.

[dramatic music playing]

Sorry, anyway, in this
rapidly modernizing world,

you've got Puerto Ricans
flying north,

and you've got jet-setters
on the mainland

flying south
to this tropical paradise.

Travel and tourism boomed,
and one airline led the way.

PanAm.

The airline that came
to define the glamour

and excitement of air travel
was also an airline of firsts.

The first US airline
to operate

an international flight
in 1927.

The first to fly
a sitting president,

and the first to fly
around the world.

And in the 1950s,
PanAm developed
economy-class

passenger service to make
flying more affordable.

One Douglas DC-4,
dubbed the Clipper Endeavor,

was given the popular route

between New York
and Puerto Rico.

On April 11, 1952,
the company offered

a special $64 Easter fare
on Flight 526A

for Puerto Ricans
eager to spend the holiday

with their family and friends
in New York.

Unfortunately,
the flight never arrived.

Nine minutes
after Clipper Endeavor
took off from San Juan,

it soared overhead
and then crashed

somewhere out there
in the Atlantic Ocean.

For 72 years, she has remained
in water so deep

that no modern search
has ever been mounted.

Now, one team
is leading the charge

to find this legendary plane.

Outside the National Library
of Puerto Rico,

I meet fellow Explorers Club
member Russ Matthews.

-Josh. Hey!
-Hey!

-How are you, man?
-Good. Good to see ya.

Great to see you, too.

Russ is the president
and co-founder

of the Air Sea
Heritage Foundation,

dedicated to investigating and
preserving historical wrecks

related to aviation
and maritime history.

And that brings us
to PanAm Clipper Endeavor.

[Russ] That's right.

What got you interested
in this story?

-Well, I was actually
researching other incidents
-Yeah.

and came across
this story that I'd actually
never heard before.

I had never heard
of this either.

Which is crazy. I mean,
this is what we do.

-Right
-Yeah.

[Russ] And, you know,
the more I looked into it,

the more and more compelling
it became.

This accident
changed aviation forever.

Right. And yet it has been
almost completely forgotten.

It has. We've been working
on this for five years.

Wow. Five years of research.

-That's right.
-Okay.

Here, actually,
in the archives
here in Puerto Rico,

there is a wealth
of information.

There is a whole paper trail.

And I think
within those documents

are the keys
to finding this plane.

-Can I see it?
-Yeah. Let's go.

Come on.

The archive contains
over 90,000 cubic feet
of documents,

some dating back
to the 18th century.

All dedicated to preserving

the territory's history
and culture.

So, Josh, this is everything
they have on Clipper Endeavor.

-Wow.
-And you can see
it's considerable.

[Josh] Yeah.

So take me
through the archives.

Take me through this accident.

I think a good place to start
is with the experience

of the passengers
who were on board.

[Josh] These files from
the initial investigation
contain evidence from

the Civil Aeronautics Board,
the Coast Guard,

and PanAm itself, spanning
a five-month inquiry in 1952.

They also contain
the testimony of 17 survivors

who paint a picture
of what happened
on that fateful day.

So this is from a passenger
named Juan Cruz Nieves.

Juan is 14 years old.

He's traveling
for the first time
by air with his friend.

Shortly after takeoff,

he hears what he thinks
are explosions.

[Josh] Right. It says,
"The first I knew
there was something wrong

with the airplane was
when I felt it shudder."

At 12:13 p.m.,
two minutes after takeoff,

the still ascending plane
begins to shake.

But nobody in the cabin
knows why.

So we have another passenger
here, Nelda Rivera.

"The plane doesn't seem
to be able

to gain sufficient altitude."

So these passengers know
that something's wrong,

-but maybe not exactly what.
-No.

Nelda goes on to say,
"One of the crew came
through the door

from the pilot's compartment
and shouted something

in English
that I did not understand.

And then sat down
in his seat very quickly."

Most of the people
on the plane, again,
are from Puerto Rico,

and a lot of them
don't speak English.

So even with
the little information
that they're getting,

they're not understanding.

[Josh] The plane, just out
over open ocean,

is already turning back
towards San Juan

when another loud noise
shakes the cabin.

With minimal information
and even less communication,

the passengers are unprepared
for the emergency landing

that the pilots
are about to attempt.

This is from
another passenger,
Emiliano Cruz Arroyo.

He says he was standing
when the plane hit the water,

"Was thrown against the seat
in front of mine.

And the next thing I remember

is that blood was coming
from my nose and mouth.

Looked around for my friend,

but I was not able
to find him."

So chaos
when it hits the water.

Yeah, confusion everywhere.

[Josh] At 115 miles per hour,

the plane has dived
into the Atlantic.

Miraculously,
everyone on board
has survived the landing.

But the disaster
has only just begun.

The Clipper Endeavor
is now rapidly sinking
into the ocean.

So does the plane break apart
when it hits the water?

Yeah,
after the initial contact,

the tail hits first
and separates.

The first officer
didn't even know anything

until he looked out the window
and saw it floating away.

-[Josh] Saw the tail
floating away?
-Yes.

And the plane then sinks?
How fast?

Two, three minutes tops.

-Two, three minutes?
-Yes.

-The entire plane's gone.
-That's it.

So now I presume it's chaos.

Yes, nobody knows what to do.

-Right.
-They don't know where
to find their life jackets.

They don't know where
the life rafts are.

They don't know
where the exits are.

They're looking out there
and realizing that, you know,

not only are they
in the middle of this,

you know, roiling ocean,
but it's...

They know it's full of sharks.

[Josh] Outside the plane,
these tropical waters
are teeming

with 42 species of sharks,

including known man-eaters
like bulls and tigers.

15 knot winds
are also kicking up
12 foot tall waves.

Some passengers are too scared
to disembark.

And those life jackets,

they're tucked into
the headrests

of the seats
where most passengers

don't know to look for them.

This passenger, Gloria, says,

"The flight attendant
opened the exit.

People began going out
without their life jackets.

If there were instructions
given about the life jackets,

I did not hear them."

I then grabbed my cousin
by the arm and tried

to get her to leave the plane,

but she was hysterical
and would not let go

of the side of the exit,

and I was not able
to get her out."

[Russ] No.

[Josh] This is from,
uh, Enrique Garcia.

" I went to the emergency exit
behind me and went through it

with my baby, six months old.

I stayed on the wing
for a moment,

but a big wave
carried my baby away."

Yeah.

Ripped out of his arms.

[Russ] Out of his arms.

Come on.

How quickly do rescuers
get on the scene?

The first aircraft is airborne
within six minutes.

[Josh] It doesn't take long
for responders to spot
the passengers,

and rescue boats
arrive on the scene
within 90 minutes.

The rescuers
who responded to the scene

could see sharks in the water.

So the Coast Guard Cutter
that was sent to the rescue,

the Bramble,

they had the crew
break out rifles

to fend off sharks.

In one instance, the co-pilot

of the first rescue plane
to land

looks and sees Juan
and his friend struggling,

and the co-pilot
without even thinking about it

dives in after them.

And he talks about twice
they were attacked by a shark,

and he had to kick it as hard
as he could to drive it away.

Insane.

The human tragedy
radiating from these pages

v overwhelming, and it didn't
need to be this way.

The pilot got the plane down.

Life jackets were inches away

from these terrified
and confused passengers.

But a lack of communication
doomed their escape.

Can we also find information
that can lead us

to where this happened?

We can, and within
these files is something

that's going to show us
where we think the plane is.

What's that?

A map showing the route
of the plane,

including where they think
it went down.

That indicates
the crash location?

Yes.

Can we see that?

Well, I can show it
to you here,

or we can go fly
that path ourselves.

Let's do it.

[dramatic music playing]

All right.

Okay, you hear me?

I gotcha.

All right,
let's rock and roll.

Hey, let's do it.

Josh, this is
East La Grande Airport.

We are taking off
in the same direction,

same runway
as Clipper Endeavor.

So we are in
their shadow right now.

We're following in their path.

[Josh]
Explorer Russ Matthews and I
are flying in the doomed path

of the PanAm Clipper Endeavor,

which crashed 70 years ago
off of Puerto Rico,

drowning 52 passengers

and changing air safety
procedures forever.

Now, a newly discovered map

from the original
Civil Aeronautics
Board investigation

may finally tell us
where to find the wreck.

Okay, so show me this map.

What did you find
in the archives?

This is it.

These are maps
that were created

by crash investigators
after the accident.

[Josh] Oh, my Lord.

Yes, and they detailed,
step by step,

the sequence of events.

[Josh] This map provides
a moment by moment account

of the plane's
tragic nine-minute flight,

with key events numbered
and described in the legend.

The document shows that
the experience of the crew
during the flight

was far different from
that of the passengers.

[Russ] So if we look
at this map here,
they leave the airport.

We follow this line, and then
we see a number one on here.

[Josh] Number one.

This is when the number three
engine started to run hot

and the air pressure
was failing.

[Josh] In response
to the dropping pressure,

Captain John C. Byrne
takes no chances.

He shuts down
the failing engine,

leaving three more
to keep the plane in the air.

We heard
in the passenger testimony
that something happens

outside the plane, a shudder,
an explosion.

When that number three engine
shut down,

that's probably the shudder
that they felt.

Right.

Right.
They could feel that this big,

powerful engine's
going offline.

-Right.
-Got it.

And the next thing
we see on this map,

it looks like
he's changing course.

[Russ] He's already decided
he's going to return

to the airport
that we just left from.

[Josh] Losing an engine
at low altitude is dangerous,

but not necessarily fatal.

The pilots abort
the flight path
to New York, though,

and turn the plane around

to head back
to San Juan Airport.

Okay, so Josh, right here,
we're making the same turn

that they made on this map.

So this is not ideal,
but he's got three
good engines.

He's turning back
to the airport.

Unfortunately, I see
another marker on here,

-[Russ] Yeah.
-number two.

[Russ] But now as he starts
to come up on power

and he's trying
to gain altitude,

he starts to lose
the number four engine.

-Oh, no.
-Yeah.

So now he's losing
the other engine
of the right wing.

Exactly.

[Josh] The number four engine
has to be shut down

along with the number three,

rendering the entire
right wing powerless.

The pilots are now
desperately trying

to keep the plane aloft
long enough

to return to the airport.

So he's trying to do anything
he can to stay in the air.

But he's trying to use
those engines

on the left wing to compensate
for what he lost on the right.

[Russ] Yes. It's not working.

They're still losing altitude.

Now Captain Byrne
has to figure out what to do.

It's starting to look likely
that they're going to ditch.

-They're going
to land in the water.
-[Josh] Right.

The only option
he has to prevent that

is he's got to make
this plane lighter.

He's got to do anything he can
to keep it in the air.

It is the only option
to do that quickly.

[Josh] Number four
on the list, fuel dumping.

[Russ]
But it's very dangerous.

So he sends the second officer
back to the cabin,

make sure nobody's smoking,

and to turn off electric power
to the galley to the cabin.

[Josh] This is
the one announcement
shouted in English

that many of the passengers
fail to understand.

What are they worried about?
Like a spark?

They're worried about a spark.

They're worried
about an explosion.

-Wow.
-Yeah.

But one of the unfortunate
results of that

is that it also turns off
the public address system

in the cabin.

Oh, my word.

So now they have no ability

-to even communicate
with the passenger.
-Yeah, that's right.

There's no announcement made
because they don't have

the ability
to do this anymore.

Got it.

They've dumped
3,500 gallons of fuel

but are still miles away
from the airport.

They're on a race
against time now
and they're losing.

[Josh] Right.

They're maybe 100 feet off.

100 feet above the last.

So this is like
their Captain Sully

-miracle in the Hudson moment.
-Exactly.

He's basically making
the call in the instant,

"I'm not going to risk
going back over land.

-I'm not going to make it.
We're going in the water."
-That's right.

-We realize that
this is inevitable.
-Right.

So at this point
with the comm system off,

all the second officer can do
is return to the cabin,

make a motion that
they're about to ditch,
take his seat.

Most of the people near him
didn't understand English,

didn't understand what
he was trying to tell them.

We read the testimony
of these passengers
and all of this,

this whole sequence of events,

they don't know really
any of this is happening.

They just know
something's wrong.

All they know is that
that water is getting closer.

Right.

Number eight and the very last
thing in this ledger is...

"Ditched."

Plane hits the water.

We've arrived at where
the crew accounts

and the passenger testimony
violently meet.

The Atlantic Ocean,
where the plane lands
on the water,

snapping off the tail section.

It could have been a miracle,
but while some passengers

make it to life rafts
and rescue, most do not.

The plane and tail
sink beneath the 12 foot waves
in minutes,

leaving few traces behind.

Okay, we should be
over the position right now.

So Josh,
take a look out there.

We are somewhere about where
Clipper Endeavor went down.

[Josh] This is it.

The exact area where Russ
believes the plane was lost.

The discovery
of these documents
has already given us

a major head start
in locating the plane.

Starting with this
and with the other information

we're finding in the archives.

Plus the technology
we're bringing to bear,

this is going to give us
the best chance to find
Clipper Endeavor.

[Josh] Having shadowed
the plane's final flight,

we land the chopper
and prepare for
a deep sea exploration

unlike any I've ever assisted.

Early the next morning
at San Juan Harbor,

we prepare to board
the Blue Manta,

a state of the art
77 foot long marine research

and surveying vessel that
will serve as the nerve center

of our search.

We board the ship
to meet the rest of our crew,

including an old friend
of mine.

Hey guys,
remember Evan Kovacs?

Oh my gosh, it's been forever.
How are you?

[Josh] Yeah.
Very good, man. Very good.

Last time I saw you,
we were diving in Namibia.

Namibia, yeah, exactly.

[Josh] Evan Kovacs is an
underwater imaging specialist

who I got to know
scanning the depths

of Namibia's Lake Otjikoto.

And since then,
he and sonar expert
Ben Roberts here

have made some major upgrades
to their kit.

The beasts.

This is our side scan sonar.

Big difference is we're towing
this behind the boat

and most importantly
we're getting it

really close to the bottom.

So we're going to have
a much, much higher
resolution image.

[Josh] The fact is, because of
the depth of the wreck,

nobody has tried to find
the Clipper Endeavor.

But going deep
won't be an issue for us.

And so what depth
is this rated to?

6,500 feet.

-This can go
more than a mile underwater?
-Over a mile.

-Okay, so that should
get the job done.
-[Evan] Yeah.

[Josh] The sonar will be
hugging the ocean floor

where the average pressure is
900 pounds per square inch.

So once we get
a target to investigate,

no one will be diving it

because no one can.

Instead, we'll be sending this
remotely operated vehicle.

And on board here,
we've got what?

[Evan] Well, we've got the 4K,

we've got the HD,
we've got the sonar.

-So this has its own
onboard sonar system.
-It does, yeah.

[Josh] That means the ROV can
not only chase a hit

from our main sonar,

it can initiate
forward-facing sonar scans

ahead of itself

to home in on an exact target.

Okay, so we've got our sonar,
we've got our ROV.

The big question is,

where do we send them?
Where do we look exactly?

I've been working on that one
for a while.

-Yeah?
-Yeah.

You got a plan?

-Let's go check it out.
-[Josh] Come on.

Inside, we pass by
the array of computers

and monitors we'll be using
to direct our search.

Also here is
Russ's better half,

research analyst Idee Montijo.

-Idee.
-Hey, Josh, how are you?

Great to see you.

And we've also got
flag number 35.

[Josh] This is an official
Explorers Club expedition,

so we're carrying
an official flag.

And old 35 here, has
quite the illustrious resume,

most recently
as part of the expedition

that found
Ernest Shackleton's ship,

the Endurance, on the bottom
of the Weddell Sea.

Okay, well, we got a lot
to live up to here.

Yeah, we do. We've got to
add to that history.

-[Josh] Yes.
-And here's how
we're gonna do it.

All right, so we are here.

-[Josh] Mm-hmm.
-[Russ] And then

this is the airfield

where Clipper Endeavor
took off from.

-Got it.
-So you remember
the map we had

-with us in the helicopter?
-Yes.

All right,
so that's over here.

We can see that's
the estimated flight path.

-[Josh] Right.
-[Russ] All right,
so you notice here

at the end of this
estimated flight path,

they have
a set of coordinates.

-That's where they figure
the plane went down.
-[Josh] Okay.

And that's
roughly where on here?

It's roughly right here.

[Josh] Okay, got it. Now,

big question.

Is this an accurate set
of coordinates?

-[Russ] So these are
the best guesses...
-[Josh] Okay.

...based on
the eyewitness testimony,

-the survivors,
and the rescuers.
-[Josh] Got it.

Now, we did some digging,

and it took years, really...

-[Josh] Right.
-...until we finally
got the help

of the Coast Guard
Historian's Office,

and they were able to produce
this amazing document.

-It's been in the archives
for the last 72 years.
-Wow.

-[Russ] Yeah.
-Okay, so what is this?

[Josh] Okay,
so what am I looking at?

This is a comprehensive report

from the commander of
the Greater Antilles Section.

So this is
a Coast Guard report

that just was sitting
in the archives in D.C.?

-Yeah. Yeah.
-Wow.

Aboard the Blue Manta,

researcher Russ Matthews
is showing me

a newly discovered
Coast Guard document

that may help pinpoint

the location
of the Clipper Endeavor.

The Pan Am plane
whose crash in 1952

killed 52 people, resulting in

the air safety rules
we still follow today.

So here on the second page,

we find that
when the Coast Guard
arrived on the scene,

it's about 80 minutes later.

Okay.

The new information
from this Coast Guard report

has shown that the oil slick
spotted by rescuers,

on which
the original investigation
based their coordinates,

had likely been drifting for
over an hour since the crash.

So using weather data
from 1952,

Russ has established
a likely origin point
for the slick.

Then there's a bearing
taken during the crash

by the tower
at San Juan Airport,

300 degrees,
roughly seven miles offshore.

A statement
from a witness says

he saw the Clipper
further to the northwest.

And finally, Russ has
the location of a reef

near the shore.

The captain said

he deliberately ditched
the plane in deeper water

to avoid hitting it.

With all of these points,

Russ is creating
a brand-new search zone

to find the Clipper Endeavor.

So, Idee,

how large an area are we
talking about scanning here?

We're talking about

ten square nautical miles
in total.

[Josh]
Not only is this deeper water

than I've ever investigated,

but the search zone will take
days and days at sea to cover.

Everyone aboard, though,

is enthusiastic
to get underway.

All right, we got a plan.
Should we go find a plane?

-Sounds good.
-Let's go find a plane.

-Yeah.
-Let's do it. Yeah.

[Josh]
We've put out to sea where
the Clipper Endeavor awaits.

Once we reach the search zone,

it's time to lower
the side-scan sonar
into the water.

But first, we need to
put down something else.

Josh, this is
our USBL transducer.

We're gonna
put this in the water,

and then we have
a beacon on the sonar fish

or the ROV

that will tell us where it is
while we're underwater.

-Got it. So this thing's
tracking that at all times?
-Exactly.

[Josh] On a scan this deep,
the transducer

is an essential piece
of equipment.

It talks to both the sonar
and the ROV

2,000 feet down in the dark.

Without it,
we'd have no ability
to pilot them safely.

And speaking of safety...

All right, so, not exactly
flat calm out here.

[Evan] No, no. It's not ideal.

[Josh] Yeah.
Can we sonar scan in this?

Yeah, it's at the edge.
It's marginal.

But, you know, it's about
a four to six foot sea,

so we're gonna go for it.

So how's this work?
Obviously, this sonar unit's

attached to this
big winch here.

-What do we got here?
-Uh, exactly.

Yeah, so this winch has about

15,000, 16,000 feet on it.

And we're expecting to have
anywhere up to 6,000 feet out.

Wow. So we're gonna have

a mile's worth of cable
dragging behind us.

We potentially will
in our deeper section.

Okay. Should we
get it in the water?

-Yeah, let's go.
-Let's do it.

Let's scan. Come on.

The Blue Manta is an aluminum
twin-engine catamaran,

which means
it can handle these seas.

We just need to make sure

that the sensitive sonar
doesn't get smashed

as we winch it down
into the rough water below.

[Evan] Okay, she's in!

[Josh] And once it's away,
the search officially begins.

On our first shift, we fix
our eyes to the monitor,

where we scan the first of
ten lanes in our search zone.

All is calm.

Well, for a few
minutes anyway.

Hmm. Wait, what is that?

Can we see that up close?

It's almost industrial.

[Josh] Right.
Maybe an old container there.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

-[Russ] Yeah.
-[Josh] I like that.

-[Russ] Mm-hmm.
-How much water is this in?

This is in about 800 feet.

Okay.

-We're not
scuba diving to that.
-[Russ] No.

That's what
we got the ROV for.

I think we should see
what that is.

We mark the coordinates
for us to return to later

with the ROV, and we
continue the scan for hours.

It is about 11:34 p.m.

Still scanning.

Quick update.

It's 1:00 a.m.

Still scanning.

All right. So we're coming up
on 2:00 a.m. here.

What's your sleep plan?

What's your
strategy here, Russ?

I'm gonna power through.

You're not gonna sleep at all?

Probably not.

I mean, it took
too much to get

into this position. I'm not...

-You're not leaving?
-...wasting a second
of it. No.

Well, I admire that.

And you're gonna
film all night?

Mm-mm.

[mouthing] I'm going to bed.

Russ is an iron man,

but I've been on
enough missions at sea

to know that rest
is a valuable commodity.

So I make my way to my bunk...

All right, signing off.

...to be gently rocked
to sleep by the sea.

I said gently.

Can we turn this thing down
a little bit? Jeez.

All right.

It's a new day.

Gotta find some breakfast.

Pan Am economy passengers
in 1952

got chilled pineapple juice,
scrambled eggs

with grilled Canadian bacon,

muffins, and toast
with honey and jam.

We do our best to match
with burned coffee

and an off-brand
frozen waffle.

A couple of not-Eggos later,
and we get back to work.

We're scanning
lane four of ten,

and the monitor is
right where I left it
a few hours ago.

The sea floor looks the same.

But after a while,

I'll admit
I start to see things.

That's a dinosaur.

Right?

That's the head
and the body and the legs.

-It's a little T-Rex face.
-[Russ] Hmm.

[Josh] Needing a break,
we hand off monitor duty,

and I decide
to do a little fishing.

You have any jacks?

Go fish.

[Josh] After I lose, I get to
return to an entire morning

and afternoon of
staring at a screen

with no hard leads emerging.

Until just before sunset,

I grab some fresh air

and an unfortunate
weather report.

Conditions don't look great.

I mean, wind is picking up,

-forecast is for
rougher seas tonight, yes?
-[Russ] Yes.

Weather's looking like
it's gonna turn on us.

-[Josh] Yeah.
-Um, higher seas,

maybe some rain.

Higher seas meaning what?

Uh, ten feet.

-Ten-foot seas?
-[Russ] Yeah.

[scoffs] Okay,
that'll be a fun night.

It's gonna get rough.
We're gonna get beat up a bit.

All right. Well,
fasten your seat belts.

It's gonna be a bumpy night.

So far on our trip, the sea
has been bumpy but manageable.

On night number two, though,

Mother Nature has decided
to crank up the dial.

Getting bad out.

[Josh] Somewhere in the waters
off Puerto Rico

is the wreckage
of the Clipper Endeavor.

And while scanning 2,000 feet

beneath the surface
of the Atlantic is never easy,

a raging storm
is making tonight's work
especially difficult.

Oh, my God. Flying fish!

The fish just jumped
into the boat.

Unbelievable.

Hopefully, that's not
the only catch of the day.

We toss it back
and brace for even worse seas,

and they don't disappoint.

Waves crash over the bow
of our research vessel.

Half the crew is throwing up
off camera somewhere,

and those who aren't
are immobilized by nausea

and soaked to the bone.

Yet this experience
is another sobering reminder

that Clipper Endeavor's
survivors clutched

to a life raft in waves
even larger than these

while waiting for rescue.

After suffering
Poseidon's wrath

for nearly five hours,

the seas finally abate
and the world stops spinning.

All right, time to get back
into the mix.

I head below deck
and return to scanning.

Oh. What is that?

That's not nothing.

-What is that?
-Can we go closer on that?

[Josh] How long
is just the bottom piece?

[Ben] About 50 feet.

Width?

About 20 feet.

It's in the pocket
for the fuselage.

This target is long enough
and wide enough

to be a DC-4 fuselage,

and is casting a sonar shadow

that suggests it rises
from the ocean floor.

We mark it to come back later
with the ROV

and spend
the remainder of the night

scanning through
the search zone.

On the third day, we enter
the final lanes of scanning.

It starts out
like the previous lanes.

It doesn't end like them.

Oh.

What is that?

That looks like it could be
the tail of an airplane.

What's the size of that?

It's about 35 feet long,

broken into a couple pieces.

Tail's how high?

27 feet.

[Josh] How long
is just the larger piece?

Uh, 7 meters, about 25 feet.

Tail?

I mean, it's the one piece
that we know for sure

separated from the airplane.

-It should be
sitting by itself.
-[Russ] Yeah.

Only one way to know for sure.

I would love to dive on this.

-Let's see what it is.
-[Russ] Okay.

[Josh]
This is our best hit thus far,

and we immediately
add it to our list

to follow up with the ROV.

When we finally
complete the search zone
a few hours later,

we have four solid targets
to investigate,

including one that
resembled the fuselage

and another the tail.

I go on deck to welcome
the towfish back aboard.

Okay. Sonar unit
is coming up. We're gonna

switch the winch over
to the ROV,

get that in the water,
get it down.

Check out these targets.

It takes hours to raise
and stow the sonar.

Then we transfer
the cable to the ROV

to dive our first target
as the sun sets.

Once we verify
the data connection,

we pair it to our transducer

so that we can track
its movements to the inch

as it descends to the bottom
of the Atlantic.

The ROV is
released into the water

and begins
the long, dark descent

to the possible tail section
we discovered in lane ten.

ROV is diving?

Yeah, we are heading down.

Passing 100 feet.

[Josh] Okay, going down.

The descent
is slow and careful.

Everything below us
is an unknown.

All right, passing 600.

Okay, almost there.
Here we go.

The bottom should be
coming into view
pretty soon here.

[Evan] Yeah, we should be
coming in any minute now.

[Josh] Here we go. Okay.
We are on the bottom.

Wow, look at that.

[Evan] All right, well,
let's head to the target.

-The visibility is not great.
-[Evan] Nope.

Dark and sandy.

And what's stamped
on that tail livery?

Uh, it's got the PAA logo...

-Right.
-...and the registration
number.

[Josh] Right.

[Russ] N88899.

-Seared into your memory.
-Yes.

It's a little tough
with the topography, too.

It's like these little hills
and stuff in front of you.

Yeah, it's just...
They're big sand waves.

[Josh] It seems totally flat
when you're looking at it
on that screen going by,

but you realize there's
a lot of actual...

There's a lot
of texture down here,
a lot of topography.

The sonar from our towfish
found the target.

Now we're relying on
the ROV's sonar
to bring us to it.

Ooh, sonar. Is that something?

Yeah, no, no, no. We got
something coming up
on the sonar here.

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.
Something there.

What is that?

In 1978, the Pina Colada
was declared

the official drink
of Puerto Rico.

But bragging rights
for the original recipe

have caused many a bar fight.

Legend holds that
a Puerto Rican pirate

invented the cocktail
to help improve crew morale,

but that the recipe was lost.

That is, until 1954,

when the Caribe Hilton's
Ramon "Chito" Marrero

mixed together rum,
pineapple juice,

and cream of coconut,

creating the Pina Colada.

Or so they say.

Perfection.

A short time later,
the Barrachina restaurant

claimed a recipe of their own
to be the original,

and now serves
3,500 of them a day.

Let's make that 3,501.

Oh, that's amazing.

-I know.
-[Josh] Which is better?

The investigation is ongoing.

I should probably have
about 40 more of these
to figure it out.

Keep them coming, Jorge.

No problem.

[mouthing] It's this one.

All right. Yeah, we got
something right here.

-Uh...
-Oh, something there.

What is that?

Is that sand?

[Evan] I thought it was
something solid,

but it could be a clay bank.

Yeah. Yeah, it is.

-Arms going right through.
That's just clay.
-[Evan] Yep.

I mean, a big,
flat surface there

reflecting off the sonar.

-Totally.
-[Evan] Yeah.

-tail fin.
-Like a tail fin.

-Right.
-Yeah.

But it's weird.
There's nothing in...

-I mean, it's just clay.
-[Josh] Yeah.

Heartbreaker.

The topography has fooled us

into reading
a natural sand formation

as potentially man-made.

So, strike one.

Intriguing target.
Not Clipper Endeavor.

No. No.

There's still more out there.

Let's get some shut-eye
and we'll try again tomorrow.

Absolutely.

All right, Evan, I think
we're gonna bring her up.

Copy that. Bringing her up.

[Josh]
After hauling up the ROV,

we head to our bunks
for a few hours of sleep

as the boat steams back
to our second sonar target.

I awake the next morning
as the team prepares

to redeploy the ROV.

And the day
starts off with a bang.

Or should I say, a snap.

[indistinct chatter]

-[man 1] Whoa. Up and over.
-[man 2] Where are we going
with that?

[man 1] Up and over.

[man 2] Up and over.
All right.

[Josh]
Something wrong out there.

They got a problem out there.

-Whoa! What happened?
-[Evan] Yeah.

Whole tracking pole let go.

It broke off?

The bracket sheared
right there at the attachment.

[Josh] I'm, uh...

I'm afraid to ask.
What does this mean?

Uh, we don't know... [sighs]

Yeah. Wow. Uh...

This is basically

the transducer
for the underwater GPS.

-Right.
-[Evan] So,

first and foremost, we've lost
all underwater positioning,

which then means
we can't use the ROV.

Basically, diving the ROV
without this is

stumbling around
in a dark room

with a flashlight,

but the room's
the size of Manhattan.

-We're done?
-We're done. Yeah.

[Josh] This is devastating.

After almost a week
of scanning

and searching with the ROV,

we're unable
to continue the investigation

or probe
any remaining targets.

All right, well, let's regroup
and get this thing secured

-to figure out
where we go from here.
-[Evan] Yep.

[Josh] Russ and Idee

have spent years using every
available piece of evidence

to home in
on this search zone.

And while
several targets remain,

I'm not sure any of them feel
diagnostic enough

to be something
as large as the Clipper.

If you were a betting man,

where would you put it down?

-I was betting it's in here.
-Right.

-Yeah.
-Do you think
maybe it still is?

It's a mystery, Josh.

[Josh] It is a real mystery

because having been a part of
many searches for lost planes,

this one feels
really findable.

-Yeah.
-[Josh] It just

feels like there's
so much data.

You've created,
I think, such a sensible
bounding box here.

-It just feels like
it should be in here.
-Right.

All these voices
from 72 years ago

are just reaching out
and saying

-this is where it is.
-[Russ] Yeah.

-They want to be found.
-Big time.

[Russ] We're not giving up.
We'll be back.

[Josh] If I've learned
one thing studying history,

it's that tragedy
always leaves a legacy.

There's loss and there's pain.

Those are unavoidable.

But in the case
of the Clipper Endeavor,

there's also growth.

After the accident,
the Clipper's captain

recommended a pre-flight
safety briefing

to avert panic and confusion.

Pan Am wisely
heeded his advice,

followed by the rest
of the aviation industry.

And you know what happened?

It worked.

Four years later,
Pan Am Flight 6

ditched in the Pacific Ocean.

Its captain not only did
a safety briefing

but he and his crew
spoke with passengers

throughout the ordeal
to set them at ease.

And everyone escaped
with their lives.

So did countless others
in the 70 years that followed.

We are demonstrably safer
as passengers today

because of
the Clipper Endeavor.

Yet this was not
a sacrifice willingly made.

That's why Russ, Idee,
and the team

will keep searching.

Using this mission
to learn, to adapt,

and to refine the search grid
for the next mission,

until the plane is found.

So that those
who gave their lives

can receive
the full measure of gratitude

that they so richly deserve.