Free Republic

A search team has found the wreckage of a New York City-bound Pan Am flight more than 74 years after it crashed off Puerto Rico, killing 52 and prompting major changes in pre-flight safety procedures. The largely intact remains of the “Clipper Endeavor,” which went down after taking off from San Juan for the city Good Friday 1952, were finally discovered after a seven-year investigation led by the Air/Sea Heritage Foundation, which partnered with the Discovery Channel, according to a press release. It was found broken into two sections — with its Pam Am logo still clearly visible. The plane...

The wreck of a Japanese prison ship that was sunk by U.S. warplanes and went down with more than 1,000 Allied prisoners of war in 1944 has been discovered in the Philippines. The vessel was one of the notorious "hellships" used by the Japanese to ferry POWs between work camps. Many of the prisoners who died when the ship sank had worked on the infamous Burma-Thailand "Death Railway." "Sadly, a lot of these prisoner transport ships were sunk by the Allies," expedition leader and American TV show host Josh Gates told Live Science. "The ships were painted to just look...