When John F Kennedy Jr lost control of his Piper Saratoga II on the night of July 16, 1999, Captain W Russell 'Russ' Webster was one of the first on the scene.
asserted
Webster → lose → scene
The crash – seven and a quarter miles off the southwest tip of Martha's Vineyard – killed Kennedy, his wife, Carolyn, and her sister, Lauren, instantly, the wreckage settling 116 feet beneath the surface on the ocean floor.
asserted
wreckage → kill → floor
As it happened in his area of responsibility as Coast Guard Commander of Group Woods Hole on the western edge of Cape Cod, Webster served as Incident Commander for Operations of the grueling five-day mission – the largest search-and-rescue operation for private citizens in a small-aircraft crash in US history.
asserted
Webster → happen → history
Twenty-seven years later, his full account of those days is detailed through The Last Flight: The Untold Story of the Search for JFK Jr and the Race Against the Atlantic, written with his historian wife Theresa Mitchell Webster.
asserted
account → detail → wife
In this exclusive excerpt, he describes how the Coast Guard, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the Navy worked together to first find the wreck site, then undertake the heartbreaking and extremely delicate mission to recover the son of a revered, assassinated president and his passengers, and respectfully bury the three victims at sea.
asserted
Guard → describe → sea
Senator Ted Kennedy, in a red-and-white-striped short-sleeved polo shirt and a life jacket, watches intently as the divers descend, his face inscrutable.
asserted
face → watch → shirt
His adamant request is that Navy divers raise John, Carolyn, and Lauren at the same time – that way his nephew isn't perceived as receiving special treatment, even in death.
asserted
nephew → raise → death
Walking the Atlantic floor stirs up silt, further compromising low visibility.
asserted
Walking → walk → visibility
But sunrays filtering through the 116-foot water column provide a bit of natural light as they descend into the Atlantic.
JFK Jr and his wife Carolyn were killed instantly in the crash
Wreckage of the single-engine Saratoga settled 116 feet beneath the surface on the ocean floor
Ted Kennedy aboard the USS Grasp on Wednesday morning, July 21, 1999, being briefed by Lieutenant Commander Eric Anderson
JFK Jr is on his side on the ocean floor near his wrecked Saratoga.
asserted
Jr → filter → Saratoga
The divers, with care and reverence, lift his remains and bring him to where the body bags are stowed on the Navy's salvage basket.
asserted
bags → lift → basket
It is then that they discover that Kennedy's legs are missing – or that's what they report up the chain, according to retired Navy diver Josh Benjamins.
Whatever the circumstance, the divers still must do their job.
uncertain
divers → discover → job
There is little light 116 feet below the surface, and divers can hardly see.
asserted
divers → be → surface
But skilled as they are, they undo the tape affixing the rolled-up body bags to the basket.
asserted
they → undo → basket
Next, they unroll one of the bags, laying it flat on the seafloor.
asserted
they → unroll → seafloor
The zipper extends the full length of the bag and is carefully opened.
asserted
zipper → extend → bag
Finally, once the top of the bag is opened, Kennedy is lowered into it.
asserted
Kennedy → open → it
The bag is lifted and secured at four points.
asserted
bag → lift → points
It's time to recover the Bessette sisters.
asserted
It → recover → sisters
Together, the divers walk through rising sandy silt, again with limited light, toward the fuselage to retrieve Carolyn and Lauren.
asserted
divers → walk → Carolyn
(Later, a witness at the autopsies, Frank Ciaccio of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), would only say that Carolyn and Lauren 'were not facially recognizable.')
asserted
Carolyn → say → Board
The impact of the crash forced the backs of their seats to fold in forward over them.
asserted
impact → force → them
The wreckage of JFK Jr's plane was pulled from the water
The rescue team fought the tides and the weather to recover the beloved son of a slain president and his passengers (photographed: John and Carolyn in January 1997)
asserted
team → pull → January
The divers pry the seats back, slowly, then cut the seat belts.
asserted
divers → pry → belts
They can't tell which sister is which except by hair color.
asserted
sister → tell → color
Out of respect for the Kennedy and Bessette families, we leave further descriptions unsaid.
asserted
we → leave → descriptions
The first sister is lifted from her seat and, using a fireman's shoulder carry, her diver exits the fuselage, slowly and with great care, and walks toward the salvage basket.
asserted
diver → lift → basket
He places the deceased into a body bag.
asserted
He → place → bag
He returns to the basket and, together with another diver, retrieves the second sister and places her into a body bag.
asserted
He → return → bag
It's zipped, slowly, methodically.
asserted
It → zip → ?
Both sisters are finally secured, together at last.
asserted
sisters → secure → ?
The Navy divers prepare to surface.
But before the basket reaches the surface, the Navy's Jeff Pauls informs Senator Kennedy about the suspected condition of his nephew's remains.
asserted
Pauls → prepare → remains
The uncertainty unsettles all.
asserted
uncertainty → unsettle → all
Will the other half of his body – if the impact had indeed cut JFK Jr in half – rise on its own?
asserted
impact → cut → own
Then the dive team and the basket holding the deceased ascend into daylight.
asserted
team → hold → daylight
All three victims are together in the salvage basket, just as Senator Kennedy had insisted.
asserted
Kennedy → insist → basket
It will be a few hours before a second dive team descends to attempt to raise the fuselage and engine.
asserted
team → descend → fuselage
In Pocasset, north of Woods Hole, the afternoon slides into early evening.
asserted
afternoon → slide → evening
Three men – and only those three – are in a small, cream-tiled room at the aging Barnstable County Hospital, site of the medical examiner's office.
asserted
three → age → office
There is very little talking; they discuss only what is essential.
asserted
what → be → ?
Captain Webster coordinates the exit strategy meeting with Rear Admiral Richard M Larrabee (hand on chin), NTSB Chairman Jim Hall, and NTSB Managing Director Pete Goelz (leaning on table)
asserted
Webster → coordinate → table
…and 44 more, not listed.
The Aporia
