General Background Info
Gay Head
Martha's Vineyard Airport (NOA satellite image)
The aircraft
Click to go to aircraft specs.
The Weather That Night.
Weather Radar Shows Clear Skies.
Weather radar image taken 10:40 PM the night of the crash. The radar was set for "clear", a much more sensitive setting than "precipitation" which tracks rain. That this radar image is showing fog and haze as opposed to clouds is proven by the fact that the FAA had listed conditions as VFR with 8 mile visibility for the area.
This radar image shows fog and haze along New York and Long Island, but Martha's Vineyard is definitely in clear air.
News Articles.
The first UPI article.
Click HERE for news article which confirms JFK Jr. to be in calm radio contact with the ground, in 8 mile visibility, and reports a witness who saw a white flash up in the sky. This article also tells a story of a strange radio bacon, thought to be that of JFK Jr's plane, which started at the time of the crash but in the wrong location, then mysteriously shut down some hours later.
There was no heavy haze.
The UPI article about radio contact and an explosion in the sky.
(UPI Focus)
Hopes fade for missing Kennedy plane
AQUINNAH, Mass., July 17 (UPI) - After a daylong unsuccessful search
for a missing single-engine plane piloted by John F. Kennedy Jr., the
National Transportation Safety Board is launching an investigation into
the aircraft's disappearance.
An official statement tonight says an NTSB team has been dispatched
to Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts as the Coast Guard continues to
coordinate "aggressive search-and-rescue activities."
As daylight faded, Air Force helicopters returned to Otis Air Force
Base, to resume the search Sunday morning.
Hopes faded today as bits of debris from the Piper Saratoga were
recovered and a piece of luggage was positively identified as belonging
to Lauren Bessette, Kennedy's sister-in-law. Kennedy's wife, 33-year-old
Carolyn Bessette, was also traveling with him.
The luggage, along with what appeared to be an airplane tire, washed
up on Philbin Beach on Martha's Vineyard, and Lauren Bessette's name was
on the tag of a black suitcase, said First District Coast Guard
spokesman Lt. Gary Jones.
Jones said other debris - a head rest and carpeting that appeared to
be from the plane - were found this afternoon floating in the water
about 100 yards from nearby Gay Head Beach.
Kennedy and the Bessette sisters were traveling from Caldwell, New
Jersey, to Hyannis Port for the wedding of Mark Bailey and Rory Kennedy,
the last unmarried daughter of Ethel Kennedy and the late Sen. Robert F.
Kennedy Jr.
The event was postponed, and what should have been a joyous gathering
of the clan turned into a grim vigil as members of the Kennedy family
waited anxiously at their storied oceanfront compound for word on the
fate of the three.
An outdoor family mass was held, presided over by three Roman
Catholic priests, as Mrs. Kennedy, other family members and around 275
guests gathered to pray.
Among those present were Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., former U.S.
Rep. Joseph Kennedy, Rory's older brother and JFK Jr.'s cousin, and U.S.
Housing Secretary Andrew Cuomo, who is married to Kerry Kennedy.
John Kennedy's older sister, Carolyn Kennedy Schlossberg, was away
on a rafting trip and had not planned to attend the wedding.
Sen. Kennedy's son, Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., was also away in
California and immediately flew back to Boston, according to media
reports.
Family spokesman Brian O'Connor said the family was initially hopeful
that the three would be found alive.
But he said the mood at the compound turned somber when debris,
apparently from the plane, began washing up on the western end of
Martha's Vineyard.
There was no immediate comment from any of the family members.
Before the effort was scaled back at sunset, Rear Adm. Richard M.
Larrabee told journalists the Coast Guard was still in a search-and-
rescue mode. But the dispatch of federal investigators suggests
authorities are now presuming the plane has crashed.
Coast Guard cutters equipped with high-powered lights will continue
to search the sea south of Martha's Vineyard throughout the night.
Earlier in the day, the Civil Air Patrol withdrew from the search 15
aircraft that were combing a 15-by-15-mile grid from Long Island to
Martha's Vineyard after debris and luggage washed ashore on Philbin
Beach.
Jones said the Coast Guard was notified about the missing plane at
around 3 a.m. EDT, and the search started immediately.
About 15 Coast Guard and Air Force aircraft and some 150 personnel
joined in the search.
Kennedy, a licensed private pilot, was expected to arrive at Martha's
Vineyard Airport in Massachusetts in his Piper Saratoga II TC sometime
before 10 p.m. Friday.
At 9:39 p.m. Friday, Kennedy radioed the airport and said he was 13
miles from the airport and 10 miles from the coast, according to WCVB-TV
news in Boston. He reportedly said he was making his final approach.
Moments later, radar operated by the Federal Aviation Administration
showed the plane went into a dive and dropped 1,200 feet in just 12
seconds, according to ABC News.
In his final approach message, WCVB-TV said Kennedy told controllers
at the airport that he planned to drop off his wife's sister and then
take off again between 11 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. for Hyannis Airport. Kennedy's family then called Hyannis Airport - around 2:15 a.m.,
reports say - when he failed to arrive. The airport then checked with
the Martha's Vineyard airport, and the search began.
The plane took off from Essex County Airport in Caldwell, N.J., at
8:38 p.m. Friday and lost contact with the FAA on its final approach to
Martha's Vineyard, Mass., said Coast Guard spokesman Steve Carleton.
An emergency beacon thought to belong to the plane was activated and
heard by the Coast Guard in Long Island, N.Y., at 3:40 a.m. But as the
search went on, authorities seemed to discount the relevance of the
beacon signal.
Kurt Hartman, spokesman for the U.S. Coast Guard's district
headquarters in New Haven, Conn., said this morning, "We received a
call from our district office in Boston directing us to conduct a
shoreline search off Horton Point, in Long Island Sound, for an
emergency locating transmitting beacon."
But by 10:30 a.m., the Coast Guard was no longer receiving a signal
from the emergency beacon that was believed to be on Kennedy's small
plane.
Petty Officer Virginia Adams in Boston confirmed to United Press
International that the Coast Guard lost the signal Saturday morning.
Adams also confirmed that Kennedy was piloting the plane, and that his
wife and sister-in-law were aboard.
Jamie Gaspar, spokesman for Martha's Vineyard Airport, told UPI that
"someone was at the airport to pick up the passengers on the plane, but
it never arrived."
A reporter for the Vineyard Gazette newspaper told WCVB-TV in Boston
that he was out walking Friday night about the time of the crash and saw
"big white flash in the sky" off Philbin Beach.
Kennedy did not file a flight plan, leading some to first suspect he
altered his route. But by 9 a.m., his arrival at Martha's Vineyard was
more than 12 hours late, and the Kennedy family postponed the wedding he
was traveling to attend.
The Air Force and Air National Guard mounted a massive air search
using helicopters, Falcon jets and a TC-130 aircraft over a 1,000-
square-mile search area that eventually concentrated on Martha's
Vineyard.
The ongoing Coast Guard search involves a 47-foot utility boat, two
41-foot utility boats and an 87-foot patrol boat, as well as two Coast
Guard helicopters.
Expected to join the search late tonight was a special ship from the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration equipped with sonar to
conduct underwater searches.
A special infrared-equipped helicopter was also set to join the
nighttime search. Its temperature-sensitive equipment is capable of
detecting a person in the water.
Kennedy Jr. - the only son of President John F. Kennedy and
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and the nephew of Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass.
- has worked as an assistant district attorney and is currently the
editor of the political magazine George. Kennedy, 38, married Carolyn
Bessette during a secretive ceremony in 1996.
WCVB-TV says Kennedy got his pilot's license last year after
undergoing training at Flight Safety International, a respected pilots'
school in Florida. He was licensed to fly visually, but not by using
instruments alone. Visibility at the time was reported to be 8 miles,
clear enough to fly without instruments.
The Piper Aircraft Co. says the six-passenger plane Kennedy was
flying was built in 1995. WCVB-TV says Kennedy bought it in April of
this year.
White House Chief of Staff John Podesta telephoned President Clinton
this morning at Camp David with news of the missing plane. Clinton and
Kennedy have met often.
In a statement issued from Camp David, where he is spending the
weekend, Clinton said, "All our prayers and thoughts are with the
families of those on board." The president has asked to be kept
informed about the search effort.
Kennedy is a native of Washington. He was born on Nov. 25, 1960, just
two months before his father was inaugurated as president.
--
Copyright 1999 by United Press International.
All rights reserved.
--
Copyright 1999 by United Press InternationalOkay. We now know from eyewitness accounts and from the weather radar picture that the air was actually clear enough for people on the ground to see aircraft out over the ocean. Ergo, if this witness saw a white flash up "in the sky" (as opposed to "on the ocean") then it was indeed up in the sky.
Note that this article also reports 8 mile visibility.
I hadn't noticed it before, but the beacon signal is interesting. It starts at about the correct time for the crash, but in the wrong location, then just as mysteriously shuts off sometime later. Misdirection?
Click HERE for news article which quotes an eyewitness report that conditions on Martha's Vineyard were not hazy. This report also shows that people on the shore of the island could see aircraft on approach out over the ocean, proving that aircraft out over the ocean could see the shore.
It Wasn't Dark at all.
Martha's Vineyard has bright lights shining up into the sky.
Click HERE for a Letter to the Editor published in the Martha's Vineyard Times complaining how new lights which point up into the sky have turned the center of the island as bright as the "Boston Skyline".
Deliberate Disinformation That Points to a Cover-up.
New York Post reporter Cindy Adams outs C. David Heymann for deliberately planting false information with the press, information which implies that JFK Jr. was an incompetent pilot.
Deliberate Disinformation That Points to a Cover-up. Part 2
New York Observer reporter Andrew Goldman confirms C. David Heymann for deliberately planting false information with the press, information which smears JFK Jr. as a reckless and incompetent pilot.
The on again off again beacon.
The very first night the aircraft carrying JFK Jr. vanished, there were early reports of an emergency beacon being detected, but detected quite a distance away from where the plane's wreckage was actually found.
From the initial UPI story, we get the following odd comment.
An emergency beacon thought to belong to the plane was activated and heard by the Coast Guard in Long Island, N.Y., at 3:40 a.m. But as the search went on, authorities seemed to discount the relevance of the beacon signal.Was another plane down in the area that night? If not, then the beacon has to be relative.
Kurt Hartman, spokesman for the U.S. Coast Guard's district
headquarters in New Haven, Conn., said this morning, "We received a call from our district office in Boston directing us to conduct a
shoreline search off Horton Point, in Long Island Sound, for an
emergency locating transmitting beacon."
But by 10:30 a.m., the Coast Guard was no longer receiving a signal
from the emergency beacon that was believed to be on Kennedy's small plane.Here we find that the beacon that has the Coast Guard ordering a search in the WRONG LOCATION simply goes away. The source of that beacon has never been identified.
For those critical first few hours, this beacon had searchers looking in the wrong place. Then it simple went away.
Bright lights over Martha's Vineyard
The following letter to the editor was published in the Martha's Vineyard Times "Letters To The Editor" on Wednesday, July 28, 1999. A phone call to the Times confirmed that the lights described in this letter were indeed in operation on the night that John Kennedy Jr. crashed.
Too Much Light at New Airport
To the Editor:
The Vineyard has taken another step towards becoming
Orlando north.
Last weekend, we took a late ferry back to the Vineyard
after a few weeks away. When we arrived at our house south
of the EdgartownVineyard Haven Road, turned off the car
lights and stepped out of the car, I was astonished to see
the sky to the north of us lit up as brightly as the Boston
skyline.
I drove north to discover that the new airport had
apparently been opened in our absence, and there were now
60 new roadway lights in operation! Unlike the old street
lights, which had their bulbs up inside a reflector where
they would illuminate the ground but be shielded from the
sky, these new lights are very bright and completely
unshielded. Not only do they direct much of their light
upwards, the glare from the bright, unshielded bulbs
prevents you from seeing the grounds clearly.
Considering The Martha's Vineyard Times series last year on
the issue of light pollution, numerous letters to the
editors of the Gazette and The Times about light pollution,
the new Aquinnah building regulations covering lighting,
and letters to the airport commissioners pleading with them
to consider the issue of light pollution in the design of
the new airport, who was the genius who specified these new
street lights? They may have "architectural presence," but
they destroy a large area of night sky.
Please call and write the commissioners, demanding that
they replace these lights with ones that shield their bulbs
from the sky, like the new lights on the Vineyard Haven-Oak
Bluffs causeway. We do not have to let "progress" turn the
Vineyard into just another metropolitan suburb.
Peter Jones
Belmont and EdgartownThese new lights directly contadict the image being put out in the media that Martha's Vineyard is a very dark place with no visual reference at night.
Even were it hazy, the glow of light through the haze would be visible.
Click for full size image.
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