El vuelo duró menos de nueve minutos; los dos motores del lado derecho perdieron potencia en rápida sucesión mientras el Douglas DC-4 realizaba su ascenso inicial desde San Juan, Puerto Rico, en ruta a Nueva York.

El piloto del Pan American Clipper Endeavor no tuvo otra opción que amerizar el avión. Los 69 pasajeros y miembros de la tripulación sobrevivieron al choque inicial el 11 de abril de 1952, pero el pánico y la confusión se desataron en los pocos y preciosos minutos posteriores al amerizaje.

La sección de la cola del avión se desprendió y el fuselaje se hundió, un accidente que cobró 52 vidas y se convirtió en un catalizador para las instrucciones y procedimientos de seguridad de las aerolíneas para las generaciones venideras.

Durante casi tres cuartos de siglo, los restos del avión, de un tamaño similar al de un Boeing 737, permanecieron perdidos en el abismo del océano Atlántico.

Pero el 2 de junio, tras rastrear una vasta y oscura extensión del fondo marino con un vehículo submarino autónomo con forma de torpedo, equipado con sonar y cámaras sofisticadas, llegó el hallazgo, según un equipo de exploración.

Ahí, a 600 metros bajo la superficie y a unos 8 kilómetros de la costa, unas letras blancas formaban las siglas PAA sobre un fondo azul con el logotipo del globo alado de Pan American World Airways, el mismo que, según los exploradores, había aparecido en la parte delantera del avión.

También pudieron distinguir las letras VOR de “Endeavor”. El resto de la palabra estaba cubierto por sedimentos acumulados con el paso del tiempo y la exposición a los elementos.

“Cuando llegaron esas primeras fotos, fue una conmoción”, dijo en una entrevista Josh Gates, el presentador de Expedition Unknown en el canal Discovery, quien participó en el proyecto. “Me dejó sin aliento porque de verdad superó lo que imaginaba que podríamos encontrar. La aeronave está tan intacta, y ver ese aluminio, que no se corroe, brillando hacia nosotros desde el fondo, fue simplemente asombroso”.

El vuelo 526A de Pan Am, apodado el Easter Special, se dirigía al aeropuerto Idlewild de Nueva York (hoy el Internacional Kennedy) el Viernes Santo cuando dos de sus cuatro motores fallaron, según el testimonio del piloto ante una junta de aeronáutica civil. El piloto, John C. Burn, dio la vuelta hacia San Juan, pero el avión perdía altitud con rapidez sobre el océano, lo que obligó a la tripulación a vaciar el combustible e intentar un amerizaje de emergencia.

Muchos de los pasajeros se negaron a seguir las órdenes del capitán de abandonar la aeronave una vez que amerizó, y permanecieron abrochados a sus asientos, dijo el piloto ante la junta, quien agregó que tuvo que arrojar a la fuerza a algunas personas al agua.

Una barrera del idioma también dificultó la evacuación del avión, según los relatos históricos de los sobrevivientes, quienes dijeron que el mar embravecido y la amenaza de tiburones en el agua llevaron a que algunos pasajeros permanecieran dentro de la cabina. Muchas de las víctimas murieron ahogadas.

Las instrucciones de seguridad antes del despegue y el aterrizaje aún no eran obligatorias en el momento del accidente, que impulsó la creación de nuevas indicaciones sobre qué deben hacer los pasajeros en caso de emergencia.

“Es un accidente que transformó fundamentalmente la aviación tal como la conocemos”, dijo Gates.

Diana Lachatanere, de 80 años, dijo el lunes que tenía 5 años cuando su padre, Romulo Lachatanere, un farmacéutico de hospital y fotógrafo, murió en el accidente. Él regresaba a su casa en Washington Heights, dijo.

“Todavía es un tema sensible”, dijo Lachatanere, una archivista jubilada y exsubdirectora del Centro Schomburg de Investigación de la Cultura Negra en la Biblioteca Pública de Nueva York.

Dijo que no estaba al tanto de que hubiera habido una búsqueda de los restos.

“No hay un cuerpo”, dijo. “Simplemente me entristece porque estoy pensando en él”.

El capitán del vuelo había estado involucrado en otro desastre aéreo de alto perfil en 1943, cuando era tripulante del Yankee Clipper, un hidroavión de Pan Am que se estrelló cerca de Lisboa. Tras ese accidente, ayudó a salvar a la actriz y cantante Jane Froman, quien resultó gravemente herida en el choque y viajaba a Europa para entretener a las tropas con una gira de la USO. Terminaron casándose.

Encontrar los restos del Clipper Endeavor se había convertido en una preocupación durante los últimos siete años para Russ Matthews, presidente y cofundador de la organización sin fines de lucro Air/Sea Heritage Foundation, quien desempeñó un papel central en el proyecto.

En una entrevista, Matthews dijo que el agua donde se hundió el avión era demasiado profunda para que los buzos pudieran llegar a los restos.

Las inclemencias del tiempo se sumaron al desafío, según Matthews, quien dijo que la pandemia de coronavirus había retrasado la búsqueda.

“Tuvimos que esperar un par de años para tener nuestra oportunidad”, dijo.

A finales de la primavera, Matthews se enteró de que el Fugro Brasilis, un buque de reconocimiento, pasaría por la zona de 26 kilómetros cuadrados que era el foco de la búsqueda del Clipper Endeavor.

A bordo del buque iba un vehículo submarino autónomo llamado Miss Millie, cuyo costo oscila entre 10 y 12 millones de dólares. La sonda en forma de torpedo puede alcanzar profundidades de 6096 metros.

Matthews se apresuró al barco, junto con Gates, quien observó cómo la sonda era bajada al agua desde un trineo en la popa del barco. Los discos duros están alojados dentro de un contenedor a prueba de aplastamientos en el interior del vehículo, el cual realizó una serie de casi 30 pasadas sobre el área de búsqueda.

“Pasamos directamente sobre un naufragio del que nadie sabía”, dijo Matthews. “Y fue como: bueno, eso es interesante, pero estamos buscando un avión, así que sigamos adelante”.

En la decimotercera pasada, algo más captó su atención: se parecía a la sección de la cola de un avión. A unos cuantos metros de distancia apareció lo que parecía ser un fuselaje, lo que motivó una revisión más detallada de fotografías de alta resolución de los restos.

El tren de aterrizaje era visible. También lo eran las ventanillas de la cabina principal.

“Es una manera de conectar el presente con el pasado”, dijo Matthews. “Es lo más cerca que estaré de viajar en el tiempo”.

El grupo a bordo del buque llamó a Tony Romeo, director ejecutivo de Eco Minerals, la empresa de exploración involucrada en el proyecto, para reportar el hallazgo.

“Estaba eufórico”, dijo Romeo, para quien la conexión con Pan Am tenía un significado especial. “Mi padre fue piloto de Pan Am”.

Se tomaron más de 350.000 fotografías de los restos, que no fueron alterados, según el equipo de exploración, el cual dijo que no había planes de recuperar ningún resto del lugar. (Señalaron que 39 cuerpos nunca fueron recuperados).

“Esa es probablemente la única lápida que tendrán”, dijo Matthews.

—-

Alain Delaquérière y Michael Levenson colaboraron con la investigación.

Neil Vigdor es un reportero de noticias de última hora en el Times, con énfasis en temas de política.

Alain Delaquérière y Michael Levenson colaboraron con la investigación.

Elements of the Trump administration are again debating whether the United States should support the downfall of Iran’s government as the war intensifies again, according to a recent analysis. 

The analysis, published Monday by Financial Times columnist Gideon Rachman, says the discussion reportedly includes efforts to encourage an internal uprising and the possible revival of proposals to support armed Iranian opposition groups, including Kurdish factions that have fought Iran for decades.

The question has gained urgency as the United States resumes strikes against Iranian military targets and officials debate whether continued pressure should remain narrowly focused on maritime security or evolve into a broader effort to weaken the Islamic Republic from within.

Such a shift would present President Donald Trump with a consequential choice: continue using military and economic pressure to force Iranian concessions, or adopt the far more ambitious objective of helping Iranians remove the Islamic Republic from power.

IRAN REQUESTS TALKS WITH US AS WHITE HOUSE WARNS ‘VIOLENCE WILL BE MET WITH VIOLENCE’

Trump, however, signaled Tuesday that he has not closed the door on diplomacy, saying Iran is seeking talks behind the scenes.

«They want to meet desperately to try and end it because they’re getting decimated,» Trump told reporters during a Tuesday press conference.

Asked what talks were possible, Trump said: «They want to desperately meet. And until they’re ready to meet in a meaningful way, we have no interest…» 

«Honestly, they haven’t seen anything yet. We’ve been nice,» the president added.

US OFFICIAL SAYS JD VANCE MADE ‘GREAT PROGRESS’ IN IRAN TALKS, CALLS SNUB REPORTS ‘FOREIGN PROPAGANDA’

Based on the latest targets, Iran has been signaling that it is prepared to damage water, energy and transport infrastructure elsewhere in the region, a senior UN official explained. (European Union/Copernicus Sentinel-2/Handout via REUTERS)

Trump’s comments suggest that military pressure and diplomacy remain intertwined, even as questions grow over whether some administration officials favor a broader strategy aimed at weakening or ultimately replacing Iran’s leadership.

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), the military command responsible for American operations across the Middle East, said Monday that it struck Iranian military command centers, maritime capabilities, missile and drone launch sites and air-defense systems as part of an effort to reduce Iran’s ability to threaten shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

The current military mission remains focused on protecting global shipping, Secretary of State Marco Rubio similarly said Sunday. 

«The only reason why the U.S. is conducting strikes is against assets of Iran that are being used to attack global commercial shipping,» Rubio told reporters Sunday at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. «That’s what the objective of this mission is. That’s what it continues to be.»

Experts say the distinction between weakening the regime and making its collapse a formal military objective is critical.

«Collapsing the regime remains a long-term goal using all forms of national power, but it doesn’t appear to be a military objective right now,» Richard Goldberg, a senior advisor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank, told Fox News Digital. «This is Project Freedom — it’s focused on securing the Strait of Hormuz, and any escalation is likely tied to that mission.»

Goldberg said some high-value targets, including nuclear facilities such as Pickaxe Mountain, could be treated as exceptions because of their strategic importance. Pickaxe Mountain is a deeply buried and largely uninspected complex near Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility that U.S. and Israeli officials suspect could be connected to Iran’s nuclear program. 

But he argued that most current U.S. operations are designed to advance maritime security rather than trigger a broader campaign to topple the government. 

STEVE FORBES URGES TRUMP TO KEEP THE STRAIT OF HORMUZ OPEN AT ALL COSTS

People stand on a bridge destroyed after a strike in Hormozgan province, southern Iran, Saturday, July 18, 2026. (Amirhosein Khorgooi/Iranian Students’ News Agency via AP)

«Where this gets confusing is when Central Command targets assets that are necessary for the Hormuz mission but could still provoke wider escalation, like dual-use infrastructure or certain leadership figures,» Goldberg said. «That doesn’t mean the U.S. wouldn’t welcome the regime’s collapse, but that outcome is more likely to come through economic pressure, covert action and targeted decapitations over time.»

Any move toward regime change would immediately raise questions about who could replace Iran’s rulers and whether Washington could support a political transition without becoming responsible for another prolonged Middle Eastern conflict.

One proposal reportedly discussed earlier in the war involved assisting Iranian Kurdish groups operating near the Iraqi border. Trump was open to supporting armed factions willing to fight Iran’s government, U.S. officials told The Wall Street Journal in March. 

The administration had contacted Kurdish leaders about possible assistance, The Washington Post separately reported. 

Such groups could provide Washington with partners on the ground without the deployment of U.S. forces. But they remain divided, militarily constrained and vulnerable to retaliation against their bases and supporters in neighboring Iraq.

The central question is whether those groups are now positioned to exploit perceived weakness inside Iran or whether increased fighting amounts to another round of limited clashes.

Majeed Gly, president of the American Kurdish Committee, said recent clashes involving Kurdish groups indicate a change in how some opposition forces perceive the regime’s strength. He cautioned that the violence should not be mistaken for a full-scale uprising, but said it should not be dismissed as routine border fighting.

«What I’m hearing is, this is not business as usual,» Gly told Fox News Digital earlier in July. «This is not like periodic clashes on the border. This is operations, and it seems to be deep inside.»

«What has changed is the perception of weakness of Iran,» Gly added. «They are less afraid of the regime.»

The broader Iranian opposition remains fragmented among monarchists, ethnic movements, secular activists, left-wing organizations and other groups that disagree over leadership and the structure of a future government.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

A man walks past a huge mourning banner depicting Iran’s current supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei and his late father Ali Khamenei, who was killed in a strike on the first day of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran on February 28, set up along a road in Tehran on June 30, 2026, ahead of Ali Khamenei’s funeral.  (AFP )

That leaves the administration confronting the same problem that has complicated previous attempts to encourage political change in Iran: widespread opposition to the Islamic Republic does not necessarily translate into a unified movement capable of replacing it.

The first Fox News Power Rankings of the 2026 midterm elections and a new poll both indicate an extremely close contest between longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Troy Jackson, the candidate set to replace ex-nominee Graham Platner as the Democratic challenger, in what’s expected to be a premiere Senate battleground.

The Fox News Power Rankings, which gauge the competitiveness of elections using data, reporting, and analysis, ranks the showdown in Maine as a toss-up. The midterm ballot box battle is one of roughly a dozen Senate contests that will determine if the Democrats win back the chamber or if Republicans hold onto their slim majority.

Meanwhile, a Pine Tree Poll conducted over the past seven days by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center indicates Jackson with a slight three-point edge over Collins among likely general election voters in Maine.

WHO’S UP AND WHO’S DOWN: CHECK OUT THE FOX NEWS POWER RANKINGS ON THE MIDTERM ELECTIONS

Jackson, a former Maine Senate president, is on a glide path to replace Platner at Saturday’s Maine Democratic Party nominating convention in Bangor, after winning the vast majority of the 500 voting delegates chosen this past weekend by Democrats in the state’s 16 counties. And most of Jackson’s top rivals for the nomination backed him after dropping out of the race on Sunday.

While the delegates on Jackson’s slate are not required to support him at the convention in Bangor, Maine, he is now considered all but certain to secure the nomination.

A fifth-generation logger and a one-time conservative Republican who became a Democrat over two decades ago, Jackson came in third place last month in Maine’s Democratic gubernatorial primary.

Platner dropped out earlier this month, amid calls from top Democrats in Maine and across the country to immediately exit the race following an explosive report containing an allegation of rape from a woman he previously dated. Platner denied the report but stepped aside.

FIVE THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT TROY JACKSON, WHO’S ABOUT TO REPLACE GRAHAM PLATNER AS THE DEMOCRATS’ SENATE NOMINEE

Then-Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner and Troy Jackson stand together during a «Fighting Oligarchy» tour stop at the Collins Center for the Arts on the University of Maine campus in Orono, Maine, on May 24, 2026. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Jackson, who had campaigned alongside Platner during the primary, quickly made the case that he was the best equipped candidate to grab the mantle of the progressive and populist movement that had backed Platner.

Along with Platner, Jackson had the support of progressive champion Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont as he ran for governor, and he is currently backed by Our Revolution, the group born in 2016 out of Sanders’ first presidential campaign.

Jackson, similar to Platner, is running on a platform aimed at working-class voters. He backs raising taxes on billionaires, the universal healthcare system known as «Medicare-for-all,» abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and he opposes military aid to Israel at a time that Democrats are increasingly divided on support for America’s longtime Middle East ally.

Collins, as she runs for a sixth six-year term in the Senate, is facing a rough political climate for Republicans, amid GOP President Donald Trump’s underwater approval ratings, persistent inflation and what polls indicate is an unpopular war with Iran.

DEMOCRACY ’26: STAY UP TO DATE WITH THE FOX NEWS ELECTION HUB

Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine stands for an interview with Fox News Digital, on Feb. 10, 2026 in Washington D.C. (Paul Steinhauser/Fox News)

The senator, known as a moderate Republican who at times has voted against Trump, last month received bipartisan praise after reaching a milestone by casting her 10,000th consecutive Senate vote.

But Democrats are taking aim at Collins over her comments that she didn’t regret her 2018 vote to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, despite his crucial vote four years later to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion ruling.

And following the fatal shooting in Maine earlier this month involving Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, Democrats heavily criticized the Senate Appropriations Committee chair for her support for ICE funding.

But Collins has a history of defeating the Democrats’ efforts to oust her from the Senate.

Six years ago, she trailed Democratic challenger Sara Gideon, the then-Maine House speaker, but the senator ended up winning re-election by nearly 9 points.

SIGN UP TO GET THE POLITICS NEWSLETTER

Fox News released its first Power Rankings of the 2026 midterm elections on July 21, 2026. (Fox News)

Republicans currently hold a 53-47 majority in the U.S. Senate. That means Democrats would need a net gain of four seats in the midterms to retake the majority, which they lost in the 2024 elections.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

The Senate race in Maine, along with battles for Republican-controlled Senate seats in Alaska, Iowa, and Ohio, are ranked as toss-ups in the Fox News Power Rankings.