Kennedy, Airplane Wreckage Located
By ERICA NOONAN, AP
AQUINNAH, Mass. (AP), The wreckage of John F. Kennedy Jr.'s plane was located
off the coast of Martha's Vineyard with Kennedy's body still aboard, and the Navy readied
a recovery mission, government officials said today.
``They've got the fuselage and John Kennedy's in it,'' a government source with
firsthand knowledge of the investigation told The Associated Press. The White House
confirmed that Kennedy's plane and a body had been found.
A source close to the scene said federal officials did not want to provide an
identity of a badly mangled body aboard until a coroner could examine the body. He said
there were no immediate reports of the bodies of Kennedy's wife and sister-in-law, who
also were on board the plane when it crashed Friday night.
Jim Hall, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, and Coast Guard
Rear Adm. Richard Larrabee, who was overseeing the search, canceled a round of morning TV
appearances and went to the USS Grasp, the ship where the wreckage was to be deposited
after being raised from the ocean floor.
The heightened activity took place after ships from the Navy, Coast Guard and
National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration spent Tuesday night scouring a site
7 miles southwest of the Martha's Vineyard coast, a spot that investigators had speculated
was the likely splash point for the plane.
It crashed while carrying Kennedy, 38, his wife, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, 33,
and her sister Lauren Bessette, 34. The fuselage was first spotted at 11:30 p.m.
Tuesday, according to a statement issued by the safety board, and subsequent investigation
confirmed that it was Kennedy's airplane. White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said
the discovery was made with remote cameras. The Grasp was being repositioned so divers
could go down and assist with the recovery, a senior administration official said.
``The highest priority remains locating and recovering the remains of all
three,'' Lockhart said. The Bessette family had no comment on the discovery of
Kennedy's body, said Grant Stinchfield, a family friend. The Kennedy family was
notified of the discovery in the early morning hours, a family source said. They have
discussed a range of options for handling the remains, including the possibility of a
burial at sea.
No dates or details have been completed, said a family source. ``Several
options are being discussed. No decisions have been made,'' the family source said.
Stinchfield said the Bessettes were working with the Kennedys on plans for a service.
Nothing has been finalized, he said.
Several experienced pilots who flew into the Vineyard on Friday night said the
hazy skies and darkness were challenging even for them. Kennedy obtained his pilot's
license in April 1998. At a briefing Tuesday, Robert Pearce, who is heading the
investigation for the National Transportation Safety Board, gave a more detailed
explanation of the approach.
All seemed fine about 34 miles from the airport, with the plane descending from
5,600 feet to about 2,300 feet at a slightly faster-than-normal rate of 700 feet per
minute.
About 20 miles from the airport, the plane started turning to the right and
climbing back to 2,600 feet. After leveling off, it flew for a short time before beginning
another turn to the right and starting ``a rapid rate of descent'' that may have exceeded
5,000 feet per minute, or about 10 times faster than normal. The descent was 3,000
feet per minute faster than what would be a stressful approach for even the most
experienced flier, experts said.
Pearce would not speculate on the damage caused by such a crash, but said: ``I'm
sure you can draw a conclusion by the debris we've been bringing in, which is
fragmented.''
On the fourth full day of the search, the FAA acknowledged it was asked in a
phone call from an intern at the Martha's Vineyard airport to help locate the plane Friday
night.
The caller, 21-year-old Adam Budd, expressed no great urgency as he telephoned
an FAA station in Bridgeport, Conn., at 10:05 p.m. Friday, FAA officials said.
He said he called at the request of an unidentified couple who had come to the
airport to meet Lauren Bessette. Kennedy and his wife had planned to drop her off on their
way to Hyannis Port, Mass., for his cousin's wedding.
Budd asked if the agency could track the airplane, but the person at the FAA
station questioned him about who he was and finally said: ``We don't give this information
out to people over the phone.''
Budd gave up, saying, ``It's not a big deal.''
The plane had gone down about 9:40 p.m. Nothing was done until a much more
urgent call was made to the Coast Guard at 2:15 a.m. by a Kennedy family friend.
An FAA spokesman said the person who took Budd's call acted appropriately. But
an unidentified FAA source said in today's Boston Globe that the agency was considering
disciplinary action against the employee for not coming forward about the call when it
became clear the plane was missing.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Associated Press Writer Glen Johnson contributed to this report
from Washington.
