The Sikorsky S-42 incorporated many
innovations, based on input from Charles
Lindbergh.More than 80 years after Pan
American Airways System’s
Samoan Clipper went missing,
the underwater wreckage of
the pioneering flying boat
continues to elude searchers.
“There’s no question
the wreck is nearby,” says
Russ Matthews, president
of the Air/Sea Heritage
Foundation, which in July,
supported by SEARCH, Inc.,
conducted a side-scan sonar
survey of the ocean floor
around 12 miles off the west-
ern tip of Tutuila, the main
island of American Samoa.
Pan Am’s famed chief pilot
Ed Musick was flying the
Sikorsky S-42B on the inaugu-
ral mail route between Hawaii
and Auckland when, shortly
after takeoff from AmericanLost and Almost Found
The team looking for the sunkenwreck
of the Samoan Clipper is not giving up.
zeroed in on a location,
though a search at that depth
was not possible with the
technology of the era.
In July, the exploration
vessel Nautilus dispatched
its remotely operated vehicle
Argus, which spent more than
123 hours scanning for traces
of Samoan Clipper at an aver-
age depth of over 9,700 feet.
Matthews says pinpointing
an undersea object based on
observations made on the
surface is tough. “What nat-
ural forces acted on the oil
and debris released from the
wreck during its journey back
to the sunlight from more
than 9,000 feet below? How
far did it drift and in which
direction before the searchers
spotted it?”
The Nautilus will be based
in the Pacific for at least
another five years. “Before
we left the area, I made two
promises to Musick and his
crew,” said Matthews. “You
are not forgotten. And we are
not done with the search for
Samoan Clipper.” —Cory GraffSamoa on January 11, 1938,
it experienced a mechanical
failure. Investigators later
concluded it exploded while
dumping fuel to lighten the
aircraft for landing.
Using eyewitness accounts
and the discovery of float-
ing debris, searchers quicklyThe Nautilus
research vessel,
operated
by Ocean
Exploration
Trust, uses
two remotely
operated
vehicles to
conduct ocean
exploration to a
depth of
13,000 feet.10 AIR & SPACE airspacemag.comTOP: NARA; BOTTOM: OCEAN EXPLORATION TRUST