[10] Captain Burn declared an in-flight emergency and informed the control tower that he planned to attempt a water landing approximately seven miles NNW off Isla Grande.

[5] Winds of 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph) whipped up the sea when the Clipper Endeavor ditched into the Atlantic Ocean north of San Juan[5] at 12:20 PM.

[1] Survivors later reported that many passengers had survived the initial ditching but had panicked because they feared the rough seas and the possibility of sharks and had refused to leave the sinking aircraft to board life rafts.

[5] After having received Captain Burn's emergency transmission, the tower notified the United States Coast Guard (USCG) rescue center and a PBY-5A Catalina flying boat under the command of Lieutenant Ted Rapalus was airborne within six minutes.

[2] Bilderback's PBY had 15 survivors on board when it found itself in a dire situation: because of the missing APU and bilge pump, the flying boat had taken on a lot of sea water and had almost no power left to takeoff.

[5] The following causes were found by the investigation: In subsequent legal proceedings, Captain Burn was exonerated and the fault turned out to be inadequate maintenance and faulty parts.

His co-pilot, Lieutenant Commander Jack Natwig, received the Silver Lifesaving Medal for jumping into the sea to successfully rescue a young boy.

Air crew members Bill Pinkston, Jim Tierney, Peter Eustes, and Raymond Evans were all commended by the Commandant of the USCG for a job well done.