JFK Jr.'s Plane Known As Safe
By GLEN JOHNSON, AP
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Piper Saratoga II HP that disappeared with John F. Kennedy
Jr. and two others aboard is known in the aviation industry as a high-performance airplane
with a good safety record. Nonetheless, flying it at night, in a hazy sky and under
visual flight rules, the reported conditions Friday night, is challenging.
``What the pilot wants to have is a relatively distinct horizon to see the
ground and be able to determine the aircraft's altitude by looking outside,'' said Warren
Morningstar, a pilot and spokesman for the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.
``At night your visual horizon is not going to be as distinct, and if it's hazy
conditions, your vision is going to be obscured,'' Morningstar added.
Visual flight rules must be used by a pilot without an instrument rating, which
Kennedy apparently did not have. Under so-called VFR rules, a pilot must be able to see at
least three miles into the distance and stay well below clouds. Pilots say anything less
than six miles visibility is marginal.
Kennedy's red-and-white Saratoga disappeared Friday as he was flying with his
wife, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, and her sister Lauren, from Fairfield, N.J., just outside
New York City, to Martha's Vineyard, Mass.
The plane was then supposed to travel on to Hyannisport, Mass., where Rory
Kennedy, the youngest child of the late Sen. Robert. F. Kennedy, was to be married
Saturday.
The trip from New Jersey to Martha's Vineyard is about 200 miles, or only about
one-quarter of the aircraft's range. Coast Guard officials confirmed Saturday that debris,
apparently from the aircraft, had been found near Martha's Vineyard.
Powered by a single turbocharged Lycoming engine, the Saratoga could carry up to
six and had a top speed of around 175 knots, or about 201 mph. With a full load of fuel,
it could fly about 859 nautical miles, or just short of 990 miles.
The plane, built in 1995, also was delivered with a full complement of modern
instruments, as well as an automatic Emergency Locator Transmitter, or ELT, said Chuck
Suma, president of The New Piper Aircraft Inc. of Vero Beach, Fla.
Such devices can be triggered manually or automatically upon a crash. They emit
signals that can be detected by satellites and homed in on by search aircraft, but not
after the plane has become submerged.
The plane was not delivered with flotation devices or flight data recorders,
Suma said.
``It's considered a high-performance airplane, but among the ranks of
high-performance aircraft, it's one of the easiest to fly,'' said
Morningstar, whose group
is the world's largest civil aviation group. ``It's a very safe, very solid, very good
airplane.''
Suma said there are about 7,500 Saratogas now in service worldwide, accumulating
over a half-million flight hours each year. The last time one was involved in a
fatal crash was December, he said.
FAA records show that a John F. Kennedy from Manhattan had a student pilot's
license as far back as 1987. Another student license was issued issued to John Fitzgerald
Kennedy of Manhattan on Dec. 12, 1997. An FAA source, speaking on the condition of
anonymity, said Kennedy received a single-engine pilot's license on April 22, 1998. There
are no records of him receiving an instrument rating.
The Saratoga was one of two airplanes that have been registered in Kennedy's
name by a corporation, Random Ventures Inc. According to Federal Aviation Administration
records, it carried the tail number N9253N. Another other plane owned by Random Ventures,
a Cessna 182, had a similar number N529JK.
That registration paid homage to Kennedy's father, the late President John F.
Kennedy, playing off his initials and his birth date, May 29, 1917. FAA records indicate
the aircraft had been sold by Kennedy and was registered by a Fairfield, N.J., aviation
company in May.
FAA records indicate that Piper first sold the Saratoga in 1996 to Poinciana LLC
of Wilmington, N.C. It was then sold to Hussain Munir of Hasbrouck Heights, N.J. Kennedy
subsequently bought the plane and registered it with the FAA on April 30.
