| Crash site | San Juan harbour, Puerto Rico |
| Airline | Pan Am (Pan American Airways) |
| Aircraft | Sikorsky S-42B – Dominican Clipper – NC15376 |
| Route | Miami – Antilla, Cuba – Port-au-Prince, Haiti – San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic – San Juan, Puerto Rico – Buenos Aires, Argentina |
| Crew | 6 – 6 survivors |
| Passengers | 21 – 19 survivors |
The crash
The flying boat left San Pedro de Macoris at 14:09 for its final leg of the route from Miami to Argentina. The flight from San Juan to Argentina was to be flown by another plane.
Following the approach the plane at 17:48 touched the water in an unduly nose-low attitude while moving sideways relative to the water. Almost immediately after first contact with the water the plane swerved violently to the right and broke into several major sections.
The investigation board found that the probable cause of the accident was the failure of the captain to exercise requisite caution and skill in landing.
The mail
On board the plane was 278 kilos of mail. All the mail was recovered – mostly in water-soaked condition and with missing stamps.
Various crash markings were used on the recovered mail from this crash.
The only recorded Nordic item from this crash shows no crash markings.
Examples of mail
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Cover from Sweden addressed to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. All the stamps has floated off so the postmark can not be read. On the back are two different Brazilian arrival postmarks – both dated 10 X 41. |
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