JFK Jr's body found hours before search would have ended

Summarised from 2 outlets · Updated 24 Oct, 21:32 · Archive

JFK Jr's body was found 116 feet below the Atlantic Ocean just hours before search crews were about to call off the operation following his 1999 plane crash.

JFK Jr's body was found 116 feet below the Atlantic Ocean on 20 July 1999, just hours before search crews planned to end their operation. The discovery came on the fourth day of what had become one of the largest maritime searches for private citizens in US history, after Kennedy's small plane crashed on the night of 16 July near Martha's Vineyard.

High-tech sonar scanners located Kennedy's body roughly ten feet from the aircraft wreckage, which was about seven miles off the southwest coast of Martha's Vineyard. His wife Carolyn Bessette, 33, and her sister Lauren, 34, were found still strapped into their seats inside the wreckage. Five days after the crash, divers recovered all three bodies.

Coast Guard Capt. W. Russell Webster, the incident commander for search operations, told the New York Post that the timing was critical. Webster said that if another day had passed, Kennedy's body might have been swept away by the 1.6-knot current and possibly never found. 'They might have never found him had another day gone by,' his wife Theresa Mitchell Webster said.

How it is being reported

• 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'The son of the slain president went missing on the night of July 16, 1999, when a small plane he was piloting crashed off the coast of Martha's Vineyard.Daily Mail · 24 Oct, 21:17
• How JFK Jr.’s body was found under 116 feet of water — just hours after end to search was being consideredJFK Jr.’s body was found 116 feet below the Atlantic Ocean just hours before search crews considered calling off the hunt -- and he might have been lost forever if they’d waited another day.New York Post · 24 Oct, 14:42

In this story: JFK Jr. · Carolyn Bessette · Lauren Bessette · Martha's Vineyard · United States Coast Guard · Atlantic Ocean

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