Aviation experts have revealed the key factors that led to JFK Jr., his wife and sister’s fatal crash into the Atlantic Ocean.
The late president’s beloved son, then 38, crashed his small Piper Saratoga plane into the ocean about seven miles off Martha’s Vineyard in 1999 while en route to his cousin’s wedding to the couple.
Some have said JFK Jr. was reckless when he decided to fly with his wife Carolyn, 33, and sister Lauren, 34, as he allegedly had not accumulated enough hours of practice to fly solo and regularly violated aviation rules.
Aviation expert Jeff Guzzetti, who was part of the team that examined the wreckage, said PEOPLE that this may have played a role in Kennedy losing control of the plane as he was forced to rely solely on internal monitors and controls as he flew through hazy night skies.
“He had been trained to look out and pick up on visual cues,” she said. “There were no visual cues.”
Carolyn and JFK Jr. died tragically in July 1999 in a horrific plane crash about seven miles off Martha’s Vineyard.
JFK Jr. (pictured checking his plane, October 1998) became disoriented over the Atlantic Ocean because of poor visibility and was insufficiently trained when he made the forced landing, an aviation expert said.
New details of fatal flight revealed in new book JFK Jr.: An Intimate Oral Biographywhich includes perspectives from those involved in the notorious incident.
Kennedy’s plan on the day of the flight, July 16, 1999, was to fly with his wife and sister-in-law to Martha’s Vineyard to drop off Lauren, before continuing with Carolyn to Hyannis Port, Massachusetts.
He had planned to attend his cousin Rory Kennedy’s wedding that weekend with his wife, although they had to beg Carolyn to go because her marriage to the former president’s son was in crisis.
According to DailyMail.com columnist Maureen Callaghan’s new book, ‘Ask Not: The Kennedys and the Women They Destroyed’, Carolyn told friends and family she had ‘no confidence’ in her flying abilities.
In an attempt to put up a strong marital front, she agreed to attend the wedding despite her reservations, which turned out to be a fatal mistake.
Carolyn, with actress Jennifer Aniston at an event in New York City in January 1990, reluctantly agreed to go on the fatal flight.
JFK Jr. was one of the most famous men in America when he crashed
JFK Jr in the cockpit of his small plane with Carolyn
John had recently started flying the Piper Saratoga, which was a much more powerful and difficult aircraft than the one he was used to flying, a Cessna.
He was still in the middle of instrument training and was not authorized to fly based solely on cockpit controls when faced with bad weather or low visibility.
After taking off from Caldwell Airport in New Jersey, John followed the coasts of Connecticut and Rhode Island until he reached the point to turn toward Martha’s Vineyard, at which point he headed toward the empty sky over the Atlantic Ocean.
Guzzetti, who was an NTSB investigator on the crash and now owns Guzzetti Aviation Risk Discovery, told PEOPLE that the turn toward Martha’s Vineyard dramatically changed Kennedy’s visibility.
“As soon as it came out into the black ocean with three to five miles of visibility in the haze, it might as well be instrument flight rules (IFR), which means you scan your instruments and that tells you if your wings are level or if you’re climbing or descending,” Guzzetti said.
“He had been trained to look out and pick up on visual cues. There were no visual cues.”
July 17, 1999: A Coast Guard helicopter pulls a rescue swimmer from the water during the search for the wreckage of JFK Jr.’s plane.
JFK Jr.’s plane wreckage recovered from water
In his final moments, Guzzetti said the path of Kennedy’s plane was indicative of “spatial disorientation,” meaning he lost his bearings after relying solely on cockpit controls due to poor visibility.
“Its flight path toward the water is consistent with what is known as a graveyard spiral,” Guzzetti continued.
“The plane spiraled nose down… as if it were going down a drain. The plane made one last turn and stayed in that direction for most of the way to the ocean.”
The aviation expert concluded that although those inside the plane were minutes away from death, he believes disorientation meant they probably didn’t know what was about to happen.
“In my personal opinion, I don’t think the passengers knew what was happening to them,” Guzzetti said.
‘Maybe they felt a small G-force pushing them down into their seats. They would have heard the rush of air over the fuselage speed up or get stronger, during the final fatal fall… And then they hit the surface of the water and it was over.
“I expected the pilot to be very confused and perhaps a little scared because the instruments might not have matched what he was feeling… The impact forces were tremendous.”
He said that, in the end, the story of JFK Jr.’s death is “a warning to any private pilot to understand his own personal limitations.”
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