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Awaiting further news of the crash search on July 19, a stoic Ethel Kennedy heads home in Hyannis- poft after going sailing with (from left) daughter-in- law Mary, son Dou- glas, Father Michael Kennedy, a cousin, son Max and his wife, Vicki.

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d 6ffin a business trip to Toronto five days be- Stein, "curious about everything." When it was ffi ffifore his death, John F. Kennedy Jr. was time to leave, Kennedy, who had flown in on his 0n July 20, ffiqWin ffihobbling around on a left ankle broken private plane from Martha's Vineyard, Mass., Massachusetts a recent paragliding accident. His with a flight instructor, talked about his love of State Police divers crutches scarcely slowed him down. Keith Stein, flying. He lamented that on the trip back to New begin a day of 35, the Toronto businessman who had helped York he wouldn't have a chance to fly at night, searching for broker a meeting with a potential investor in which he especially enjoyed because of the nav- the wreckage of Kennedy's George magazine, marveled at his igation challenges. JFK Jr.'s plane in guest's energy and fascination with the people Kennedy always exhibited a healthy skepti- the waters west of and things around him. "He was sticking his cism about the mythology surrounding his fam- Martha's Vineyard. head out the car window all the time," says ily, yet with his natural passion, daring and sryle, 'When he effortlessly seemed to embody it. the = single-engine Piper Saratoga that he was piloting E plunged into the waters off Martha's Vineyard on the night of July 16, killing Kennedy, 38, his wife, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy 33, and her sis- ter Lauren Bessette, 34, it seemed impossible a that life lived so vibrantly could so suddenly end. Across the nation, indeed around the world, stricken citizens anxiously monitored the del- uge of television, radio and print coverage of the tragedy. On vacation in the italian Alps, Pope John Paul II sent word he was saying a prayer for the families. Kennedy had been flying to Martha's Vine- yard-about six miles off the coast of Cape Cod-nearly every weekend this summer, stay- ing with Carolyn at the 37 S-acre estate near Gay Head that he had inherited with his sister Car- 52 at2/ss PEoPLE qiF*&b

Arrow Sandwich Company 0n July 20, JFK in Gay Head, where John Jr.'s sister Caroline frequently stopped for iuice and her husband, or water when exercising. Edwin Schlossberg, "It made this weird noise, return to their sum- like a flying lawn mower. mer h0me in But he really seemed excited Sagaponack, N.Y., about it, because he was al- after a somber ways in it." morning bike ride Kennedy and Bessette a day after their had earned a reputation for 13th wedding graciousness during their anniversary. stays on the Vineyard. The weekend before the crash the couple had stopped 'Wharf, by the a no-frills lt'rii':.f seafood restaurant in Edgar- town. Around midnight Sat- oline Kennedy Schlossberg after their mother urday, they had driven to the scruffy Lampost mar- Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis's death in 1'994- bar in nearby Oak Bluffs for a round of Around the island, John, especially, was a fa- garitas with friends. When it came time to set- miliar figure, often Rollerblading or riding his tle the bill, the friends paid. Then, Bessette did bike along the narrow roads or cruising in his something that their waitress that night, Mered- beloved vintage Pontiac GTO convertible' About ith Katz, 20, a student at Tulane University, will three years ago he had bought his first aircraft, always remember. She discreetly took Katz aside a two-cylinder ultralight, essentially a seat with to make sure the tip was enough. Just to make propeller and wings attached, that startled his sure, Bessette gaveKatz another $15 or $20, say- neighbors. "They didn't know what it was," ing, "I know how expensive rents are here on says Brenda Hayden, manager of the Broken the island." PEoPLE azss 53 After his visit to Toronto the following Mon- Saratoga II ready for takeoff. day the rest of Kennedy's week was, typically, He was proud of the six- filled with work-and play. On Tuesday evening seater plane, which he had re- he dropped by an ad agency party in downtown cently bought secondhand for Manhattan, but stayed only half an hour. He an estimated $300,000. He apologized to his host that he was afraid of re- took off from runway 22 at injuring his ankle on the slippery floor. Two days 8:38, just after sunset, and later, he had lunch at the posh San Domenico headed northeast. At the restaurant, where he said hi to Diane Sawyer, time, an oppressive heat wave and reportedly worked out for two hours at a had left skies so hazy that one Manhattan gym, broken ankle and all. That pilot at Essex airport had night he took in a Yankees game with three scrubbed his own plans to fly friends. to the Vineyard. Kennedy, Friday morning, Kennedy kept a doctorb ap- who had logged about 300 pointment at Lenox Hill Hospital, which may hours aloft, was authorized have been for a checkup on his ankle. Around to pilot a plane only under vi- 6 p.m. he headed for Essex County Airport in sual flight rules, meaning that northern NewJersey, where he would meet Car- visibility had to be greater olyn and Lauren to fly to Massachusetts. The than three miles so he would plan was to deliver Lauren to Martha's Vine- not have to rely on instru- yard, then continue on with a short hop to ments. That evening, visibil- Hyannis, on the Cape. John and Carolyn would ity was somewhere between be attending the wedding of his cousin Rory four and five miles-above Kennedy, 30, a documentary filmmaker who is the visual flight rules mini- Bobby and Ethel's youngest child, to Mark Bai- mum but hardly ideal flying ley, 30, a writer who also works in film. conditions. Lorenzo believes It is not entirely clear how Carolyn felt about Kennedy had logged more her husband's piloting. According to some re- than half of the roughly 50 hours of flight time Days before the ac- ports, she had been known to drive between he needed to achieve his instrument rating, cident, John told an New York and Massachusetts rather than fly which would have allowed him to fly in bad acquaintance that with him. Jackie biographer C. David Heymann weather, relying on gauges in the plane to nav- he and Carolyn (with says John told him in the week before the crash, igate and maneuver. sister Lauren Bes- "Nobody likes flying with me, including my Kennedy may or may not have been pushing sette, left, recently wife. . . . I'm no Charles Lindbergh." Last year the envelope when he took off so late on a nearly in NewYork City) he told USA Today, "The only person I've been moonless night for a flight over water, where might leave Man- able to get to go up with me-who looks for- the horizon disappears and even a highly skilled hattan when they ward to it as much as I do-is my wife." pilot may have difficulty judging a plane's di- had children. In any case, Kennedy and his passengers ar- rection and altitude. He certainly had the kind of rived at the New Jersey airport on Friday be- confidence that borders on daring. He enjoyed hind schedule, delayed by heavy traffic out of paragliding, ocean kayaking and ice climbing, New York City. Kennedy, after buying a ba- and during a recent visit to Rapid CitS S.Dak., nana and a bottle of water for a snack at a lo- he had even sought permission (unsuccessfully) cal gas-station store, pulled into the airport in a to rappel down the face of Mount Rushmore. white convertible around B p.-., dressed casu- But around the Essex airport he was known as ally in a white tank top and still limping; Car- a prudent flier. Charter pilot Ethan Bagg says olyn, wearing a black summer suit, came by Kennedy often had him fly him to Martha's means of a car service shortly afterward. (It is Vineyard when weather conditions were iffy. unclear when Lauren, an investment banker, "He was smart enough to know his limitations," arrived.) Kennedy had switched his base of op- says Bagg. "He has lost a son," erations to Essex airport from nearby Teterboro On Friday night, Kennedy apparently took says columnist airport, which has a celebrity clientele including the usual route to the Vineyard, hugging the Mike Barnicle of Harrison Ford, Bill Cosby and John Travolta, Connecticut coastline at 5,600 feet before head- Ted Kennedy (tak- because he preferred the laid-back atmosphere. ing out in the vicinity of Block Island to cross ing nephew John "He was just one of the guyS," says Larry 40 miles of ocean to his destination. He did not Jr. and his wife, Lorenzo, owner of the Caldwell Flight Acad- contact any of the control towers along the way Carolyn, for a sail emy. "FIe'd hang out like everybody else and to get weather updates, and at 9:39 a blip on on Thanksgiving talk about flying." the radar screen, later determined to be weekend 1997 in Kennedy immediately started getting his Piper Kennedyb plane, began to lose altitude quickly, Hyannisport).

54 etzss PEoPLE at a point just 18 miles from the Martha's Vine- yard airport. In the space of 14 seconds before going off the radar,the 9raft dropped from2,600 feet to 1,100 feet, descending at more than 5,000 feet per minute-at least eight times faster than a single engine plane would normally come down for a landing. In those last seconds, ex- perts say, the wind would be roaring past rhe cockpit, leaving no doubt that the plane was in trouble. The point of impact was believed to be only about seven miles from the Gay Head beaches John had known for years. Meanwhile, at the Kennedy compound in Hyannisport, the rehearsal dinner for Rory's wedding was already under way. "They were having a great time," says one family friend. "They made a quilt for Rory and Mark, and everyone made a square with a footprint or handprint or something representing them." John and Carolyn were due on Martha's Vine- yard sometime after 9. When the plane failed to arrive, a couple who had come to meet Lau- ren Bessette voiced concern to an airport em- ployee, Adam Budd. At 10:05, Budd, 21, s phoned the Federal Aviation Administration in 1 Bridgeport, Conn., and asked if the plane could be traced, but no action was raken. (The FAA later said the caller hadn't made it clear that the plane was overdue and released 'lfhen a transcript that seemed to confirm that.) midnight came Children at St. and went, a Kennedy family friend in Hyan- Michael's Church in nisport phoned the Coast Guard. First, other Greenwich, Conn., airfields were contacted to see if the plane had gather around the diverted there. By B o'clock Saturday morning, altar on Sun., July dozens of aircraft and ships were deployed from 1 8, to pray for the ports and airfields all along the coast to begin souls of John the search. and Carolyn Throughout the next morning an air of dis- Kennedy and Lau- belief hung over the compound. (Sister Caro- ren Bessette. line and her husband, Ed Schlossberg, on a rafr- ing vacation in Idaho with their three children, had been informed at 4:30 a.m. local time by police that the plane was missing.)At an im- promptu mass on Ethel's porch, Joe Kennedy, Bobby's oldest son, exhorted the 50 or so fam- A nation in mourn- ily members and friends who were keeping vigil ing made im- not to give up hope. The group then ate a light promptu memorials lunch, keeping TV and radios on at all times, outside John and waiting for any word. By mid-afternoon, when Carolyn's NewYork luggage bearing Lauren Bessette's name was City apartment in pulled from the Martha's Vineyard surf, the Tribeca (right), gloom deepened. Yet even then there was a on Martha'sVine- fierce refusal to believe that anlthing could have yard, atArlington happened to John and his companions. "They National Cemetery, were saying, 'There's still hope. Never say and at President never,"' recalls a famlly friend who was inside Kennedy's the compound. All the same, that evening when birthplace in one of Joe Kennedy's 18-year-old twin sons Brookline, Mass. 56 atzss PEopLE 21, stopped by Baxter's restaurant in nity." Early on'Wednesday, July KennedY's Hyanois to pick up some seafood din- came word that John had ners and was asked how things were body, and parts of his Plane, going at the compound, he replied been found in about 100 feet of wa- Head. sadly, "Oh, it's awful over there." ter a few miles off Gay But by Monday it was clear be- At best it will take months to de- yond doubt there would be no sur- termine what caused the KennedY causes vivors. In Hyannisport, the wedding plane to crash, if indeed the tent was taken down, the flag low- ian ever be determined. National inves- ered to half-staff. Speaking for the Transportation Safety Board tigators will subject any recovered Kennedy family, John's uncle Ted is- g before ven- sued a siatem.tti. "'W. are filled with t debris to lengthy analysis unspeakable grief and sadness," it turing any opinions. One Possible $ Dr. begin, and went on to express the ! explanation was suggested bY - family's love for its lost son and his Bob Arnot, chief medical corre- prl- wife, its respect and sympathy for the Bessette "They had their spondent for NBC, who was flying his own family, its gratitude to the searchers who had own special brand vlte plane past Martha's Vineyard and on to about tried io haid to find a miracle' Ted had earlier of magic," said nearby Naniucket Island that same night, went traveled to the Schlossberg residence in Sen. Ted Kennedy a half-hour ahead of Kennedy. The flight miles Sagaponack, N.Y., where he tried to ease the of the couple (on routinely, says Arnot, until, about three grGf by playing basketball with Caroline's John's 38th birth- off Gay Head, he hit a wall of haze that ob- pilot ihildren. At home in Greenwich, Conn., Ann day last Nov. 25). scured'everything around him. Arnot, a fly the and Richard Freeman, Carolyn and Lauren's with 5,000 hours of experience, had to mother and stepfather, along with \Tilliam rest of the way using his instruments' In such Bessette, the girli' father, sent word through a conditions a piiot can easily become disoriented, Carolyn weJe true finding it difficult to tell, literally, which way is spokesperson: "John and -When sbulmaies. . . .'We take solace in the thought up. that happens, it is all too easy for a cannot that together they will comfort Lauren for eter- flier to slip into a dive from which he pull out. "I haven't been in conditions like that ior years," says Arnot. "I have 5,000 hours and I had a problem. At 100 hours of flying [expe- rience] i would have been very worried." The Monday after the scheduled wedding, Kennedy, who was a quiet supporter of many charitable organizations, had an appointment in New York City with author A.E' Hotchner and actor Paul Newman to make plans for an awards ceremony to honor philanthropic com- panies. Hotchner had looked forward to the meeting. Kennedy "was always antic and play- ful," says Hotchner, but he took his responsi- bilities seriously. In the end, it seems, it was the way he had been raised, the only way he could live. $Thatever may have happened on that dark final night, he was a man who, in all his full and advinturous years, rarely lost his bearings in life.

Stories written by: Bill Hewitt, Pam Lambert, J.D. Reed' Patrick Roqers, Susan Schindehette and Alex Tresniowski Reported by: Lissa August, Matt Birkbeck, Mark Dagostin0' Sarah Delaney, Tom Dufty, Joanne Fowler, Lorna Grisby' Eve Heyn, Lang, Jennifer Longley, Elizabeth McNeil, Ward Morehouse lll, JansSifrTpodesta, Don Sider, Natasha Stoynotf, Joseph V. Tirella' Ellen Tumposky, ToulaVlahou, Fannie Weinstein and Lee Wohlfert *l Share your feelings about the tragedy on PEoPLE 0n w AOL (Keyword: PeoPle) ffi# PEoPLE apgs 57 rr ai:, ..4 'y*. *"i U