The search for John F. Kennedy Jr.'s body following his fatal plane crash in 1999 was nearly called off just hours before crews located his remains at a depth of 116 feet in the Atlantic Ocean. Coast Guard Captain W. Russell 'Russ' Webster, who led the rescue mission, stated that the operation was on the verge of being concluded when advanced sonar equipment detected a signal.
Kennedy, his wife Carolyn Bessette, and her sister Lauren were all killed on July 16, 1999, when the small plane Kennedy was piloting went down off the coast of Martha's Vineyard. The incident triggered one of the largest maritime search operations ever conducted for private citizens in the United States.
For four days, the search yielded no sign of the victims. Webster recounted that his teams were discussing ending the search and accepting the possibility that the bodies might never be recovered. "They might have never found him had another day gone by," Webster's wife, historian Theresa Mitchell Webster, told the New York Post. The couple are detailing their experiences in a new book, "The Last Flight: The Untold Story of the Search for JFK Jr. and the Race Against the Atlantic."
Kennedy's body was found approximately seven miles from the coastline, about 10 feet away from the main wreckage. The Bessette sisters' bodies were discovered inside the wreckage, still strapped into their seats. Webster indicated that Kennedy's body was likely found at the very last moment, suggesting that any further delay could have resulted in the remains being carried away by ocean currents and becoming permanently lost.
Divers utilized a range of technologies to scan the ocean floor, but the recovery process for the remains took an additional day even after their location was confirmed. Theresa Mitchell Webster described the bodies of Carolyn and Lauren Bessette as so severely mangled by the impact that they were not recognizable by sight and were identified solely by their hair color.
Webster explained that the search was complicated by the fact that Kennedy was flying under visual flight rules, meaning his plane was not being tracked by the Federal Aviation Administration. Kennedy was navigating using geographical references and had not completed his instrument flight training. A storm that moved over Martha's Vineyard shortly before the flight may have contributed to the disaster.
According to Webster, Kennedy's inexperience with flight instruments may have been a critical factor. He recalled one of Kennedy's flight instructors warning him that he was not ready to fly the aircraft. It is believed that Kennedy lost his sense of horizon during the flight, leading to a high-speed impact with the ocean. The National Transportation Safety Board investigation later determined that the plane fell at a rate of 4,700 feet per minute, and Webster emphasized the devastating force of such an impact, comparing water to cement at that speed and altitude.