(WAVY) — It’s is a somber anniversary.
Twenty-five years ago Tuesday, John F. Kennedy Jr died in a plane crash he was piloting that also killed his wife and her sister.
I was actually on air when this story was starting to break. Now remember in 1999, there was no social media, and NBC had taped the second hour of the Saturday Today show, meaning, no mention of the downed plane.
WAVY-TV 10 was doing regular news-weather cut-ins when a quick glance at the AP wire provided the somber news.
After putting together a script and creating a map of Martha’s Vineyard, 10 On Your Side brought the story to viewers who likely didn’t know anything about it.
The next call we got was from the news director telling us to get the first flight out to Massachusetts.
We’d be gone for six days.
Here’s a look back at the reporting from 25 years ago.
Together, with photographer Rob Rizzo, we arrived at the Kennedy compound Saturday night, July 16, 1999, immediately noticing all the satellite trucks, the tight security, the most media we had ever seen at a story.
“That was the biggest media event I have ever covered in my career, and I covered the Pentagon on 9/11,” Rizzo said.
John Kennedy Jr, his wife Carolyn Bessette and her sister Lauren were flying to the wedding of Kennedy’s cousin, Rory. There was a huge white tent set up for the wedding at the Kennedy compound, but sadly, it would be used for a wake.
Kennedy’s plane was found 7.5 miles off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard in 116 feet of water.
The Kennedy family was stunned, the country was stunned, the world was stunned.
Kennedys were always walking by, and there was an understanding not to talk to them. Ethel Kennedy, the wife of Robert Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1968, went for a walk and a sail passing by us. She was also the mother of Rory, who was to be married.
Reporters from around the world covered the story.
“We have great sorry for your royal family in the U.S. Australians are feeling that as well,” said Robert Penfold from Australia at the time.
The fog was thick over Martha’s Vineyard, and it would roll in, at will, and unexpectedly.
The thick fog that rolled in blinded Kennedy as he flew towards Martha’s Vineyard.
He became disoriented during the final approach. He was not instrument trained, and should not have been flying at night under foggy conditions.
The recovery effort was mammoth. Hampton Roads had assets in area, including NOAA’s “Rudy” with side-scan sonar that picked up nine possible sites overnight.
Also, heavy debris like a plane’s body could be lifted by the USS Grasp.
During a live shot, a U.S. Coast Guard chopper flew over and landed on the front lawn of the Kennedy compound.
Sensing the bodies may have been recovered, Rob and I ran to the other side of the Kennedy home in time to get the key video of the day.
We reported that day,
“The Chopper landed on the front lawn to pick up Sen. Ted Kennedy seen here running back into the main house,” we reported that day. “Also here Sen. Kennedy’s son, Patrick, who is also a congressman, and his brother, Ted Kennedy Jr.”
Moments later, Ted Kennedy emerges from the home with a book presumed to be a Bible.
“Then Sen. Kennedy and his two sons flew to a Coast Guard station on Martha’s Vineyard to board a boat headed to the USS Grasp,” we reported then. “This quickly-arranged trip followed confirmation that divers located bodies of Kennedy, his wife, and her sister.
Rizzo is one of maybe three photographers on scene to get those images of Kennedy.
We pointed out that Ted Kennedy was getting on the chopper to go and basically identify the remains of his nephew — that was it.
“That was it,” Rizzo said. “The saddest part for that family, for that weekend that was supposed to be a happy weekend turned out to not be that.”
We then raced to U.S. Coast Guard station at Woods Hole, where the bodies were returned to shore.
We met lots of people like Joe Shipley, from Columbus, Ohio, who prayed the rosary on the Kennedy compound beach, and we met Victoria Walenoski who was from Connecticut. She was remembering John Jr.
“I think heaven is such a peaceful place,” she said. “They are all probably rejoicing that they are seeing him face to face.”
This, indeed, was an unprecedented inter-agency effort to recover the bodies and wreckage of a private plane flown by a private citizen.
Then-President Bill Clinton defended his decision to allow this, in his words, because of the Kennedy family contributions to our country.
