Details of the July 16, 1999, plane crash involving JFK Jr., Carolyn Bessette and Lauren Bessette near Martha’s Vineyard, and final hours
John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife, Carolyn Bessette, and her sister, Lauren Bessette, died in the crash of the Piper Saratoga II plane that Kennedy was piloting to Martha’s Vineyard on Friday, July 16, 1999.
The crash occurred approximately 2141 Eastern Daylight Time.
John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette were intending to continue from Martha’s Vineyard to Hyannis Port for the Saturday, July 17, wedding of Kennedy’s cousin Rory Kennedy. News accounts have differed as to whether Lauren Bessette also planned to attend the wedding. The NTSB report indicates that the purpose of the flight to Martha’s Vineyard was to “drop off one passenger.” Vogue reports in 2026 that “Lauren was also reportedly dating JFK Jr.’s cousin, Bobby Shriver ... (She was set to be dropped off by JFK Jr. and CBK on Martha’s Vineyard, where she’d be spending the weekend with Shriver, after which her sister and brother-in-law would go on to Massachusetts to attend a family wedding.)”
According to CNN, Adam Budd, 21, an intern at the Martha’s Vineyard airport, was approached by a couple who said they were there to meet a Lauren Bessette. At 10:05, Budd called the FAA in Bridgeport, Conn., “and asked if someone could track Kennedy’s plane. The FAA, unsure who Budd was, explained that this was not the kind of information given out over the phone.”
Also according to CNN, a friend of John and Carolyn’s was staying Friday night in their Tribeca apartment at their suggestion because the friend’s air conditioning had broken down. The friend took a call late at night from Sen. Edward Kennedy, who was aware the plane was overdue and wondering if Kennedy had never left New York. The friend informed the senator had Kennedy had indeed left.
At approximately 2:15 a.m. July 17, the “Kennedy family” notified the Coast Guard at Cape Cod that the plane had not arrived. The CNN account says “a Kennedy-family friend made a call to the Coast Guard.” At 8:06 a.m., NBC News reported the plane was missing.
On Saturday afternoon, plane debris, “including a headrest and a black canvas suitcase with a business card for Lauren Bessette, washes up on Philbin Beach in the town of Gay Head.”
The 6 p.m. July 17 wedding of Rory Kennedy, a documentary filmmaker and youngest child of Ethel and Robert F. Kennedy, and Michael Bailey, a book and film editor, is postponed at Hyannis Port, Mass.
Carolyn Bessette and Lauren Bessette sat behind John F. Kennedy Jr. and faced the back of the plane. The plane’s 6 seats “had been configured in a ‘club style’ arrangement, with 2 forward-facing seats in row 1 (including the pilot’s seat), 2 aft-facing seats in row 2, and 2 front-facing seats in row 3. The five recovered seats had separated from the floor structure.”
On July 20, 1999, approximately 2240, wreckage was located “in 120 feet of water.”
The bodies of John F. Kennedy Jr., Carolyn Bessette and Lauren Bessette were recovered around 4:30 p.m. on July 21. The remains were taken by motorcade to the medical examiner’s office. At 9 a.m. July 22, Kennedy and Bessette family members took the cremated remains onto the USS Briscoe, a Navy destroyer, “to be scattered at sea off Martha’s Vineyard, about three miles from where the bodies were recovered.”
Autopsies of the remains “indicated that the pilot and passengers died from multiple injuries as a result of an airplane accident ... toxicological tests were negative for alcohol and drugs of abuse.”
Whether any pieces of the plane still exist has not been reported. According to the NTSB report, “On August 5, 1999, the main airplane wreckage was released to a representative of the accident pilot’s insurance company. On November 17, 1999, the remainder of the retained parts were released and shipped to the insurance company’s storage facility.” The NTSB report describes the plane as a Piper PA-32R-301, Saratoga II, N9253N.
Also not reported is the extent of the luggage recovered. News reports indicated that a day after the crash, a bag belonging to Lauren Bessette with business card, and a prescription pill bottle for Carolyn Bessette, were found washed ashore on a beach. A Navy diver has said in a recent podcast that he was among the divers for this wreckage and saw Guns N Roses CDs, a watchband, a hat and crutches, which he indicated were given to the families.
According to the NTSB report, “The flight originated from Essex County Airport (CDW), Caldwell, New Jersey, and was destined for Barnstable Municipal-Boardman/Polando Field (HYA), Hyannis, Massachusetts, with a scheduled stop at Martha’s Vineyard Airport (MVY), Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts,” and, “witnesses stated that the purpose of the flight was to fly to Martha’s Vineyard to drop off one passenger and then continue to HYA.”
The report says, “Witnesses at CDW reported that they saw John F. Kennedy Jr. “using crutches and loading luggage into the airplane.” Citing medical records, the NTSB report says John F. Kennedy Jr. on June 1 had “fractured his left ankle in a ‘hang gliding’ accident” and had surgery June 2, 1999. On July 15, his “Cam-Walker was removed,” and on July 16, he received a “straight cane and instructed in cane usage.” The medical records noted that the pilot was “full-weight bearing with mild antalgic gait.”
According to the NTSB report, “In the 15 months before the accident, JFK Jr. had flown about 35 flight legs either to or from the Essex County/Teterboro, New Jersey, area and the Martha’s Vineyard/Hyannis, Massachusetts, area. The pilot flew over 17 of these legs without a (certified flight instructor) on board, including at least 5 at night. The pilot’s last known flight in the accident airplane without a CFI on board was on May 28, 1999.”
According to the NTSB report, “The airplane was equipped with a Flightcom Digital Voice Recorder Clock, DVR 300i” that “could record and retain a total of 5 minutes of data. ... When the unit was located in the wreckage, it was crushed, its backup battery was missing, and it had retained no data.”
“The cell phone records for the three occupants of the airplane reflected one out-going call, about 2025. No calls were listed as being made from, or received by, the cell phones from the time of the takeoff through the estimated time of the accident.”
The night before the crash, in CNN’s account, Kennedy was shown on TV attending a game at Yankee Stadium between the New York Yankees and Atlanta Braves. The morning of the crash, he met with Jack Kliger, president of Hachette Filipacchi, the publishing partner of Kennedy’s George magazine.
At 4:05 p.m., Friday, Kennedy sent an e-mail to John Perry Barlow, a friend and former lyricist for the Grateful Dead, about the death of Barlow’s mother.
Carolyn Bessette on Friday afternoon shopped for a dress for Rory Kennedy’s wedding at Saks Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. “She bought a short, $1,640 black dress by Alber Elbaz, a designer working for Yves Saint Laurent.”
Lauren Bessette, who worked in the investment-banking division at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, headed to the George offices to ride with Kennedy to the Essex County Airport in Fairfield, N.J., in his white Hyundai convertible. Lauren arrived at the office around 6:30, “and staff members say there was no indication that either she or Kennedy was running late.” Some at her office had seen her carrying a black garment bag, apparently the one that “would wash up on the beaches of Martha's Vineyard.” The Chicago Tribune reported on Sunday, July 18, that luggage with Lauren Bessette’s tag included “a hair dryer and women’s clothing.”
Carolyn Bessette arrived at the airport in a black radio car “around 8:30 p.m.” The flight is believed to have departed much later than planned because either or both parties was late in arriving at the airport. According to the NTSB, another pilot who flew that evening from nearby TEB airport said he drove to the airport from New York City “and that the traffic was the second heaviest he had seen in 15 years.”
The Boston Globe front page on July 18, 1999
The flight took place after sunset, in the dark. The plane was in the air for approximately 62 minutes, from approximately 8:38 to 9:40 p.m. During the flight, the plane climbed to an altitude of 5,600 feet, typical for this kind of aircraft.
Lauren Bessette and Carolyn Bessette have an older sister, Lisa Ann, an identical twin of Lauren. Carolyn is the younger sister.
The New York Post reported that among the invited guests for the original Hyannis Port wedding date were Michael Mailer, son of Norman Mailer, “and his date Marla Maples,” as well as Ford modeling agency founder Katie Ford and hotel entrepreneur Andre Balasz.
Rory Kennedy and Mark Bailey were married 2½ weeks later in a private ceremony in Greece.
