JFK Jr’s body found 116 feet underwater as search neared end
Coast Guard Capt W Russell “Russ” Webster says search teams found John F Kennedy Jr’s body on the Atlantic seabed just as they were considering ending their search. Kennedy, his wife Carolyn Bessette and her sister Lauren died when his plane crashed off Martha’s Vineyard in July 1999; the recovery operation was one of the largest maritime searches for a private citizen in US history.
After four days without finding the missing people, sonar detected the wreckage and Kennedy’s body 116 feet below the surface, about seven miles offshore and roughly 10 feet from the plane. The Bessette sisters were found strapped into their seats inside the wreckage, and it took another day to recover the remains. Investigators said Kennedy was flying under visual flight rules, had not completed his instrument training and crashed at a rate of 4,700 feet per minute.
In short
- Search teams found Kennedy’s body just before they were set to wind down the search.
- Sonar located him 116 feet below the surface, near the wreckage.
- Investigators cited his incomplete instrument training and the crash’s high speed.
Explained simply
John F Kennedy Jr was the son of US President John F Kennedy and a well-known public figure. In July 1999, he was flying a small plane from New Jersey towards Massachusetts with his wife, Carolyn Bessette, and her sister, Lauren, when it crashed into the Atlantic near Martha’s Vineyard.
The Coast Guard led a large search for the three people and the wreckage. Searchers used sonar, which detects objects underwater, to locate the plane on the seabed; the bodies were later recovered. Investigators examined the flight and crash, including Kennedy’s experience with instrument flying, to understand what happened.
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Originally published by Daily Mail as “JFK Jr’s body was found more than 100 feet deep in ocean after horror plane crash hours before recovery crews were about to quit: ‘They might have never found him’”.