John F Kennedy: The Final 24 (Full Documentary) The Story of His Final 24 Hours

john f kennedy jr was an american prince the son of a beloved president and a beautiful trend-setting aristocrat the enormity of the experience that this kid had to go through it's amazing my father stood before you he carried the weight of public expectation on his shoulders he knew that he was being groomed he knew that everyone had a plan [Music] hounded by paparazzi and constant gossip column headlines john takes refuge in his passion for flying john are we lost i miss the little boy i knew i miss him so much you know why did he decide to fly that evening risking his own life and the lives of his loved ones [Music] new york city july 15 1999 john kennedy jr begins the last 24 hours of his life he is more than a celebrity he's american royalty a cultural icon it's early evening and john is meeting his wife carolyn and her sister lauren at the stanhope hotel bar in new york city he's nursing a broken ankle sustained when he crash-landed his ultra-light aircraft six weeks ago john carolyn and lauren had planned to fly to the wedding of john's cousin rory kennedy but there's a problem john's marriage is in trouble and carolyn doesn't want to go john moved out of the couple's tribeca loft to a room here at the stanhope hotel just two days ago [Applause] [Music] john and had a fight with carolyn and she was such a high maintenance person that you didn't make up with her in five minutes it would take hours or maybe even days to make up with her from one of the big fights and uh so he stayed at a hotel he went off and stayed at a hotel again it didn't mean they were separating it just meant the the intensity of their argument and how the seriousness of the discussions they would have to have they both had a very strong temper and not emperor but um character you know caroline had a very very strong character carolyn has been overwhelmed by the public attention that follows john everywhere he goes she didn't know who she was she got lost a little bit and that was a big problem well john had no idea when he married carolyn that she would be honest she would be unable to deal with the media pressure after all she was in public relations beforehand she seemed to love to be in the limelight she seemed to be the perfect wife for john but immediately after their honeymoon they come back to the their flat in soho and uh she can't deal with it there are the photographers waiting there she simply can't deal with it and she becomes a recluse she just stays in that apartment for days on end and i won't take no for an answer in an effort to broker a compromise carolyn's sister lauren bessette has pressured the couple to meet for drinks it'll be a great idea we'll all fly up together she encourages them to put aside their differences at least for the weekend and go as planned to john's cousin's wedding why don't you just put the last few weeks behind here i just want this to stop kennedy family gatherings [Music] it's a chance for him to shed the public persona and relax with people who've shared triumphs and tragedies with him all his life the kennedys have had so much tragedy they're used to circling the wagons they're used to pulling together grieving together and resolving together i've never seen a family like it they're always there for one another i want to try have just 23 hours to live [Music] john f kennedy jr lived his entire life in the public eye he was america's most eligible bachelor and according to people magazine the sexiest man alive he dated film stars and married the socialite carolyn bessette he was on tabloid front pages and a regular in celebrity gossip columns he wasn't thrown into a fire or me a glare of media lights he grew up there i mean he was the best at it but it had his innocence about it and that is probably the greatest lesson i learned from my friends don't be cynical and to hear it from him was beautiful thing i'm not a political leader but i can speak for those of my age john lived with endless speculation about whether he had the ability to follow in the footsteps of a father he never knew [Music] 38 years earlier john kennedy jr made history as the first child born to a u.s president-elect john and jackie kennedy took washington by storm ushering in a whole new era the whole thing just changed the wines the food the way people dressed the way people felt about coming to the white house the people who were honored there the nobel prize winners the intellects the the great museum directors the university presidents the guest lists were quality quality quality instead of politics politics politics [Music] the interest in it was unprecedented in american history the magazines the covers of the magazines television newspapers radios just nothing but the candidates john and his sister caroline's enchanted childhood was constantly documented by an adoring media kennedy's being the first television administration as it were we're really a novelty in american history and young vibrant uh energetic charismatic couple with the two golden children i mean i'm the first two kids to grow up in the white house since i think the days of grover cleveland little john just caught everybody's hearts he was so handsome and so natural and responsive but soon this idyllic time would be cut short by tragedy john kennedy jr has less than 22 hours to live his marriage is in trouble and he's living alone in a new york hotel earlier this evening john and his wife carolyn were reconciled thanks to her sister lauren now he's turned his attention to problems with work four years ago john launched a political magazine called george but now sales have slowed and the magazine is floundering john is up late struggling to create a business plan to save the venture he had a magazine that was in trouble it might fold if he didn't get an infusion of cash george was an important uh stepping stone for john jr it was um it was something that he uh endeavored to do prior to entering the field of politics which i think he recognized as an inevitable part of his life john will meet his publisher in the morning his attempt to be regarded as a serious player in publishing will be tested dealing with the bare bone business of george was difficult uh for him he did not enjoy it he had to put on a suit and go into the boardroom and get berated john is under maximum stress just when his life will depend on clear [Music] thinking it's been a long day he needs to get some sleep tomorrow morning's meeting could determine john junior's fledgling political career [Music] 36 years earlier president john kennedy and his spirited two-year-old son had developed a unique bond president kennedy was so thrilled to have a son but he was like every father every father is thrilled to have a son and here was this beautiful boy and so he loved it when little john came to his office and examined everything and played with everything but on november 22nd 1963 john kennedy jr's charmed childhood ended with a gunshot his father was assassinated in dallas texas the president was buried on john's third birthday he said often that he remembered nothing of his father not not even that famous scene where he's saluting the horse-drawn carriage that's carrying his father's body [Music] this image would haunt john for the rest of his life he was in a way in search of his father his entire life john kennedy jr will spend much of his life trying to live up to the expectations of a man he can barely remember [Music] the assassination changed everything the white house suddenly closed up like a clam shell usually the place was full of happy chatter and clicking of heels on those marble hallways but all of a sudden it was just deathly silence it was a grief-stricken house it was a watershed america had this endless optimism and promise that one sees dissipating from that day just two weeks later john left the white house where he'd spent the first three years of his life and her two children moved into a house in georgetown elegant house but it was surrounded by paparazzi and by journalists and by tourists what was so terrible about it was that they couldn't go anywhere or do anything without being besieged by the press the media they had sightseeing buses that would stop in front of the house um carolyn kennedy and her brother john would leave the house and people would pounce on them and tear at them and grab their clothes it was impossible for her to have the real life she wanted to have for her family in less than a year jackie fled with her children to new york city desperate for a father figure for her young son jackie turned to bobby kennedy [Music] robert kennedy's courage and determination to follow in his brother's footsteps and run for the presidency made a huge impression on john junior [Music] joseph kennedy the county patriarch really had trained his sons that one must pick up the banner for the next now it was bobby's turn to take up that banner and to get to the white house himself my thanks to all of you and now it's on to chicago but on june 6 1968 the unimaginable happened just five years after the death of his father john junior's uncle robert kennedy was shot and killed as he campaigned for the leadership of the democratic party now seven-year-old john jr was fatherless again as an adult john kennedy jr was reluctant to speak about the tragedy he experienced as a child [Music] but the media speculated endlessly and dubbed it the curse of the kennedys the title i selected for this book the candidates dynasty and disaster made a lot of sense seems to be some kind of a curse hanging over the kennedys on john's last day the curse would strike again john kennedy jr has 14 hours to live last night he reconciled with his estranged wife carolyn who agreed to join him at a family wedding at martha's vineyard john plans to take carolyn and her sister lauren in his light aircraft they plan to leave at 5 30 this afternoon but john jr has a busy day ahead he's already tired having worked long into the night preparing a new business plan to save george his political magazine from financial disaster this morning john will present his new plan to the bosses at hachette fill apache publishing john's hopes for his future depend on the outcome of this meeting klieger told him it's over it's done we're not going to pick you up uh after your five-year contract is done we've we've we've done wonderfully with the magazine we feel you've been a great success but it's time to move on john knows hashet's ceo jack klieger is tough but he's determined to turn the situation around the business plan that he presented was a strategic plan but it didn't have um in my opinion enough specific tactical um executions that i could then go and present that to my bosses and feel comfortable with that presentation john was very interested in expanding the george brand and i agreed that it was a an important element of what we were doing or what we could do john obviously was a was a magnet to be on television being interviewed but he didn't really want it to be john kennedy as the driving force he wanted george to be there so he wanted to get more of his editors and more of the content onto both the television and the internet wants john to trade on the kennedy name but john has other ideas and that's frustrated the publisher's executives i would like your input he got very very specific and his eyes got very straight when he he he said he didn't want his name taken advantage of by the company this is not a comfortable experience for john but no one would ever know he's a man who's learned too well to hide behind his public persona with his charm offensive the meeting goes better than expected it's a framework we so we went through a number of um specifics that i wanted him to get into which he was prepared to do and was was willing to do um but he was upbeat he thought he could have those specifics ready for me by the end of that day which i said that's fine we're on the right track john john manages to buy himself some time time he doesn't have a great day by the age of eight john kennedy jr had lost both his father and his uncle to violent assassinations at that point jackie said my god they're killing kennedys and my kids are next uh and this is what led to the marriage with aristotle on the asses jackie's courtship with onassis was pounced on by the media and made international headlines aristotle onassis was greek and he was the richest man on on the planet earth jackie married onassis in part because she liked money and the kennedys hadn't really left her that much money less than five months after the death of robert kennedy john's mother married self-made shipping magnate aristotle onassis but the american public was outraged jackie had betrayed their trust by apparently casting aside the sacred memory of their fallen hero [Music] americans love jackie they loved her not as a woman with her own life they loved her as the eternal widow with her children protected by the anastasia's private security force john's life regained stability aristotle onassis lavished time love and money on john jr i think he liked harry o'nazis a lot i think arie liked him a lot and i think he found harry to be a very interesting avuncular sort of figure but this oasis of calm was not destined to last within three years the marriage between aristotle onassis the greek self-made billionaire and jacqueline bouvier kennedy the virginia blue blood began to fall apart i think that fact that they were so oil and water-ish night and day-ish have you call it what you will i mean his ideal of fun was to um sit around in a nightclub uh till three in the morning breaking glasses dancing the greek dances singing the greek songs whereas jackie liked to curl up with a good book at 9pm then tragedy once again reshapes john junior's life aristotle onassis loses his only son alexander in a plane crash for the greek as as the kennedys used to refer to aristotle unless for the greek to lose his one and only son was for aristotle onassis an absolutely tragic traumatic uh life-ending event unable to cope with his loss ari severed all ties with young john for the third time in less than 10 years john jr lost a father figure [Music] just after midday john is busy in his manhattan office the meeting with his publisher is forgotten as john hits the ground running as the editor-in-chief of the magazine he's got to push the next issue out the door deadlines he had uh to do so many things and he was responsible and he became i think he became a little stressful he explained to me once that when the magazine has to go out has to go out and sometimes you have to be there all night locked into a frenetic pace john is about to make a series of minor mistakes that will mean the difference between life and death [Music] hello at 1pm he gets a call from essex airport and arranges for his piper saratoga to be fueled and ready for 5 30 pm but as the afternoon unfolds his departure plan will be delayed need that 10 minutes [Music] 105 pm a pilot he regularly flies with calls to ask if he needs a co-pilot john inexplicably refuses the offer the strangest most inexplicable thing that happened that last day was that john didn't take a co-pilot with him he was such a careful pilot that of the 200 or so hours he had flown he had an inordinate number with a co-pilot i mean most pilots with 200 hours would not have had seven or eighty percent of those hours with the power beside him but he knew he wasn't a great pilot why john didn't take the pilot with him is one of those things we're just never gonna know 30 p.m the drive to essex airports takes about an hour if he's going to make his 5 30 departure and fly to martha's vineyard in daylight he should leave now but john takes time to email his friend john barlow to offer condolences on the death of his mother [Music] 4 30 p.m running late john calls jack klieger and postpones their meeting until the following week and he did call me at around 4 30 or so to say that he'd gotten really backed up they were closing an issue and he also had some other things he had to take care of and he had to leave for the airport that night so he asked if he could get it to me the following week and i said that's fine as long as you can see that it gets sent to me where i was just going to be on vacation that far away so we agreed that i'd get it the following week and that was the last conversation we had yeah yeah i know i know 5 pm john calls his friend billy noonan and says he will not be able to make his anniversary celebration they plan to meet later that weekend but john will never see his friend again 6 32 pm john logs on to the weather service he reads that the conditions are hazy visibility five miles but john fails to take into consideration that the measuring device only sees what is directly above that machine is only looking straight up in the sky in other words if you have a clear sky run over the machine their machine will report clear sky but if you have 500 feet away a layer of fog surrounding the machine the machine still will report a clear sky unless that fog is right over the machine john hasn't flown alone in his piper saratoga since he broke his ankle six weeks ago but he's too busy putting out fires at george magazine to calmly evaluate his plan to fly 6 40 p.m john leaves the office more than two hours later than intended he's neglected to calculate the additional time he will lose driving in friday rush hour traffic when you learn to fly you are taught to follow certain procedures checking the weather doing a pre-flight inspection checking yourself making sure that you know you're feeling up to it if you skip one of them it opens the door for error john has made a number of errors in judgment this afternoon in less than three hours he'll be dead 22 years earlier john celebrated his 16th birthday at the kennedy compound [Music] despite the numerous tragedies he'd faced friends say he embraced life with energy and enthusiasm some strange appreciation of life uh this desire to go out and do things to see things carry out like a cat he was just curious he wanted to see everything and do everything but john was at best an average student teachers said he had difficulty concentrating in class he had a problem with aiding the attention deficit disorder uh started taking medication for that when he was a teenager and jackie sent him to a therapist in new york for that reason his mother wanted john to toughen up and experience life away from the kennedy compound she sent him to guatemala as a peace corps volunteer and the following summer on an outward bound survival course jackie was worried that her son wasn't serious she was worthy to get in trouble get off get off the right path he was just going to be a playboy it was during this period that john discovered a new passion acting he loved it he loved it his first was serano of bergerac he was great on cirano john was a charmer because sharma snake he he was in on stage he was choosing his element you know he loved it for john acting was a chance to do his own thing and to escape for a moment the kennedy name he was in fact very charming playing roles of down and outers alcoholics this was what he was best at not playing somebody from his own background it gave him the freedom to be someone other than himself deliberately avoiding princeton and harvard where his father studied john enrolled as a freshman at the smaller and more liberal brown university there he was constantly monitored jackie watched over john very close and often in ways he didn't even know i mean she she got his grades she'd call his professors she she was omnipresent jackie made sure john knew he must fulfill his duties as a kennedy he was often drafted in to introduce his uncle teddy at political functions and when he wanted to apply to drama school as a graduate student jackie insisted he study law it was jackie who ultimately put her foot down regarding his acting career and who said look you know you're going to go to law school and you're going to study law and you're going to work succumbing to intense pressure john suppressed his passion for acting and reluctantly entered new york university law school it was the first step towards accepting his kennedy inheritance john is already more than two hours late for his scheduled flight [Music] it's almost 7 pm when he picks up lauren his wife's sister john originally planned to fly out of essex county airport for martha's vineyard at 5 30 but driving in friday rush hour traffic it will take him over an hour to get there and he'll be forced to make the last crucial minutes of his flight in darkness [Music] with no break in the traffic john and lauren are still at least 45 minutes from the airport he could have called to reschedule the flight but he did not john's wife carolyn has spent the afternoon shopping for a dress to wear to the family wedding she decided to travel alone to essex airport now she too is stuck in traffic she does not confirm with john and her sister about the delay carolyn and john have always had an impestious relationship when they met she was well connected in the fashion industry he was america's most eligible bachelor they met when carolyn was a shopping consultant for calvin klein john fell madly in love they caught each other's eye and that spark didn't go away that spark turned into a big flame in many ways [Music] they were america's golden couple but by their last day cracks have begun to appear john has been accused of being insensitive some say carolyn is controlling a skilled manipulator my wife called her a witch but a good witch and that she had this power about her a mystery and an intelligence i think more than anything she didn't necessarily not let you know what you were she was thinking but you knew that she understood you she looked you in the eye and you knew that she touched your soul a little bit and you felt that and you appreciated that in her and john saw that right away with her as i said when i first saw her i looked at the ground and you know tried to get out of the room frankly and they didn't even know each other that that well yet he was watching me react to her and i think you know and a lot of people react that way to her and that was attractive to him they were two powerful personalities who couldn't seem to get along even though they believed they were meant for each other john and carolyn's relationship was really based on the idea that they were soul mates that they found the counterpoint of each other they were talking about kids and talking about him becoming a senator and she smoothed out [Music] john and carolyn make slow progress towards the airport [Music] whatever their hopes their future together will be cut tragically short [Music] [Applause] slow news day i guess huh a lot of people waiting for you how do you feel about the apparently it's true i got the official word not long ago so it's true what do you mean a lot longer john began his career in law as an assistant district attorney in new york city absolutely what kind of cases are you looking forward to well whatever they give me all this attention add to the pressure jackie was proud of her son but her plans for john's future would soon be derailed he said i know clarence darrow what do you want out of my life he didn't enjoy being a lawyer that kind of lifestyle didn't suit him i mean he wasn't a great d.a i mean a lot of the bad guys were so delighted to meet john that that confessed and uh he he he wasn't a prosecutor okay he was a two he was too nice to be a prosecutor john became restless and dreamed of starting a political magazine but the greatest obstacle to achieving this new goal would again be tragedy when john was 33 years old jackie kennedy was diagnosed with cancer putting his dreams aside john devoted himself to the care of his mother we always thought oh she's going to be okay you know because she told me you know i'm going to be okay don't now get nervous about it but despite her courage and john's constant care five months later jacqueline kennedy anasis was dead [Music] what he suffered the most is after madame died it was a big big void on his life for john it was extraordinarily sad but it was the evocation the birth of a man i mean the day after she died there he was in front of her building on 10 45th avenue in a blue suit talking to the press my mother passed on she was surrounded by her friends and her family her death was horrible is the saddest i've ever seen but he came out of it with her spirit firmly behind him it's a reading from the second letter of saint paul to the thessalonians but i would not have you to be ignorant brethren jackie was gone and although devastated by the loss john kennedy jr was now finally free to chart his own destiny she told him on her deathbed go use your name you earned it delayed at the office and then by rush hour traffic john kennedy jr arrives at essex airport almost three hours behind schedule he has less than two hours to live john drops lauren off at the terminal to wait for carolyn while he drives to a nearby convenience store he is relaxed as he goes about his normal routine even though the sun is setting and it will soon be dark also unknown to him bad weather is moving in i actually was planning on making that same trip from caldwell to martha's vineyard about three or three hours prior to john f kennedy junior's departure but i chose to cancel due to the uh the reduced visibility and the weather another pilot who has just landed and is aware of the reduced visibility tries to warn john if this pilot had found john it is possible that he might have changed his mind about flying but john is now at the convenience store calmly signing autographs for excited well-wishers [Music] he had decided before making the trip that he was going to do it by himself john felt well look i'm out of this the contraption of my ankle my ankle feels good i'm taking pain pills but nevertheless i'm ready to go for john the physical limitation was a challenge that was the kennedy way this is a family that's out there that lives on the edge they feel somehow that the only way that they can enjoy life is by living in the most extreme sense and if you do that enough i mean the odds are bound to take hold [Music] he did not take excessive risks in the sense that i saw some of his other family members doing but when it came to flying he was almost anal i went up with my family the week before and i would have gone up the week after when he landed it was beautiful you know a lot of people said to me why didn't you warn him it would have been completely inappropriate for me to warn him to warn him or to give him advice because i didn't know i don't know his proficiency i don't know you know what his skill level is and i don't know if there's a pilot or an instructor on the airplane with him it's now 8 25 pm john had originally planned to make this trip in daylight leaving now means that soon he will be flying in the dark over the atlantic ocean is that john's plane over there yes that's john's plane is that his wife yes that's his wife she go over here let's go thank you tragically one of jackie kennedy's last wishes would have saved her son's life had he kept his word she exacted from john a promise that he wouldn't pursue flying lessons after her death but after her death he did in fact resume them john couldn't resist his passion for flying he began with ultralight planes then bought a cessna and quickly got his pilot's license i know that he he seemed very happy in an airplane when i was with him it gave him a lot of joy [Music] three months before he died john purchased a piper saratoga a much faster more powerful aircraft flying was his escape route from all the public attention john had an illusion that ordinary people had a kind of freedom he didn't have he didn't see that you and i are imprisoned in our way just as he was and he saw it in flying as a way to have that absolute freedom go above the clouds and he was his own person the year after his mother's death john fulfilled an ambition she would have been proud of he launched his political magazine george ladies and gentlemen meet george to huge critical acclaim the beginning of george was like an eagle taking off uh for him that he happened to be riding uh he loved it the creative process the fact that he had come up with a business idea and it seemed to make sense it wasn't just coming together because of his name uh and the it was it was journalism he loved that uh his favorite part of george was talking to the dalai lama and and even larry flint he loved this interview with larry flint because larry's you know the kind of the ultimate rebel in a way and the supreme court ruling uh that that's who john has later filmed was an underdog and that's who john associated women how could john kennedy generally be an underdog that's who he thought he was politics is not merely pulling a lever on election day or covering a debate on capitol hill politics is really about personalities and ideas it's about he found himself with george i mean even if it failed he knew all that magazine had done for him and it given an entree to a whole new world after years of trying to find his place in the world it seemed that by his early 30s john jr was poised to create his own version of what it means to be a kennedy [Music] [Applause] it was a vision that tragically would never be realized john kennedy jr is about to fly with his wife and sister-in-law to a family wedding in martha's vineyard [Music] it is now 8 35 p.m only an hour of daylight remains john should have left at 5 30. each individual pilot has to make his own decision to fly after careful consideration of all the variables [Music] 8 34 p.m john contacts air traffic control the conditions on the ground are slightly hazy the problem with haze is that um you can take off and the first thousand feet or so as you're climbing out could be clear but when you get higher you could enter a haze layer and not be prepared for it and that happens very often in the summer john is only certified for visual flight rules or vfr the theory behind vfr is that you will be able to maneuver the airplane by looking out the window and being able to determine the plane's relationship to the horizon when the horizon is not visible the pilot is essentially flying blind to be certified to fly under these conditions a pilot must go through rigorous training learning to use only instruments to navigate john has very limited expertise in instrument navigation and is not certified [Music] as they take off john has left a goodwill note which he will never read john's departure is now so late that lauren's hosts for her weekend on martha's vineyard arrive to pick her up just as she is leaving she's flying in with john and carolyn are they here yet i haven't john could have filed a flight plan as he left but he did not it's a good idea particularly on a night flight to file a vfr flight plan the advantage being that once you file and activate it there will be someone waiting for you to cancel it when you arrive at your destination some people say john took too many risks but he had to take those risks to assert his own manhood yes it was too much but but the question is how far and where do you stop and he he was somewhat addicted to it he just needed the rush daylight is rapidly diminishing in less than an hour john carolyn and lauren will be dead one year earlier it seemed john kennedy jr was set to fulfill the expectations of an adoring american public consumers his political magazine george was doing well he was moving in all the right political circles and he'd found the woman he wanted to spend his life with publicist carolyn bessette intense media speculation he orchestrated a secret wedding on cumberland island off the georgia coast we weren't supposed to tell anybody i remember when they told me they told me in july you know it was a long time to keep it until september i remember him pumping his fist that they'd gotten it done like yes we did to her satisfaction and it was a wonderful wedding it really was the wedding made headlines around the world they were portrayed as the perfect couple but sparks flew between carolyn and john from the moment they met he liked the fact that there was trouble there and it wasn't until he married her he saw that trouble wasn't going to end she was strong strong-willed i mean she had her own point of view she she was not some little housewife or something like that that was just going to sit there she had a sophisticated friends when she met him she had a nice life she because a very nice family i mean she she had her own personality and she had her own point of view [Music] as they faced up to their problems the media onslaught was unbearable for carolyn there was always some guy lurking around and who would take her picture or run up to her or just invade her space and i don't think anybody can be prepared for that then rumors of carolyn's drug use began to surface in the tabloids carolyn used coke the way most people used coke from that generation when they partied the chosen recreational drug of the fashion industry next john was spotted with ex-girlfriends and affairs were suspected something his friends dispute monogamous guy frankly you see his loyalty with his friends it was the same things with his girlfriends uh he had every skirt thrown at him on earth frankly oh yeah he was an innocent he was very innocent on that level uh and he'd like to think that he was a little maybe more mysterious but uh frankly he stuck to his knitting most damaging john's magazine began to fail and his ability to live up to his father's legacy was questioned john hoped to save his marriage he wanted his magazine to thrive again and he wanted to establish his own reputation all he needed was time [Music] the sun has set it's now nautical twilight it's hazy but not totally obscure it will be completely dark in 10 minutes [Music] for now john is still able to fly with visual references as you get farther away from new york city you're not going to be able to to see lights that enough to give you a straight line for the horizon it's basically a black hole [Music] flying over water at nighttime you pretty much lose that horizon you're solely referencing your instruments 20 minutes from his destination john has two possible routes he can fly up the coast to connecticut and rhode island keeping the lights on the shoreline as a visual reference and then turn south over cape cod to the airport at martha's vineyard this route will only add five minutes to his flight time of all my trips i've made more than find i've always flown that particular route because it puts you over water the least distance or he can take a riskier but shorter route and leave the coast and fly a direct line straight out over rhode island sound in the atlantic ocean a distance of 34 miles from the airport at martha's vineyard choosing the route is a pivotal decision [Music] john chooses to fly the direct route out over the ocean into the void this choice will cost him his life in just two minutes john will be flying in complete darkness in five minutes he'll be dead [Music] 5500 feet in complete darkness he is 34 miles from the airport at martha's vineyard he cannot see any visual landmarks but he starts to descend 9 39 pm there is still no sign of the lights at the airport can you see anything out there john levels off at 2500 feet and searches desperately for some visual reference a light a horizon line stars anything to give him a sense of direction he starts to become disoriented spatial disorientation occurs when you don't refer to your instruments and the natural tendency is to believe what your body is telling you john does not have enough experience in his new plane and is ill-equipped to fly in these conditions he relies on his instincts just when he needs to focus on his instruments the plane now banks sharply to the left and climbs 9 40 pm trying desperately to compensate for the left bank he turns the yolk hard to the right the plane slides into a descent speeding toward the ocean completely disoriented john believes the plane is now level and yanks the yoke towards him to bring the nose up instead the plane banks even more to the right the engine races as it picks up speed and enters a free fall called the graveyard spiral the saratoga plummets towards the ocean there is no way john can recover [Music] [Music] i miss him you know i miss i miss the little boy i knew and you know i couldn't believe that he was going to finish this way the coast guard will resume its air search around the world feelings of shock and disbelief resonate as new spreads of john kennedy jr's disappearance the media descends on martha's vineyard as a massive search is ordered i knew he was dead they had couldn't find planes don't go missing there is a suitcase with a business card and the business card attached to a little plastic insert within the suitcase is in the name of lauren bassett john kennedy jr died on the 16th of july 1999. six days later on the uss briscoe the kennedys once again gather to bury one of their own as an entire nation mourns with his death the world will never know what his true contribution might have [Music] been [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: Popcornflix

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Id: JOsmbapqjyo

Length: 52min 2sec (3122 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 15 2020