NEW YORK, July 21 -- The wreckage of Pan American World Airways' Clipper Endeavor, which vanished on Easter weekend 1952 with 52 people aboard and was never found during the lifetimes of most of those who searched for it, has been located on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean off the northeastern coast of Puerto Rico by a team affiliated with Discovery Channel's Expedition Unknown program.

The Air/Sea Heritage Foundation and the exploration company Eco Minerals partnered with the Expedition Unknown crew to conduct the search, which used deep-sea sonar equipment to locate what appears to be the main fuselage of the aircraft. The discovery was announced Tuesday, 74 years after the airliner's scheduled arrival in New York.

For the families of...