New Book Details JFK Jr. Fatal Crash And Search; Authors To Speak At Orleans Historical Society

It might surprise many to realize that the little boy who so famously saluted his father’s passing coffin in an iconic 1963 photo would have turned 66 this November. That is, if John F. Kennedy Jr. had lived.

 A new book, “The Last Flight: The Untold Story of the Search for JFK Jr. and the Race Against the Atlantic” (Harper Select, 2006) examines how JFK Jr. crashed his plane off Martha’s Vineyard on July 16, 1999, with his wife and sister-in-law on board. The book is an insider’s story of the massive search that followed.

 “The Last Flight” is by the husband-and-wife writing team of retired Coast Guard Capt. W. Russell “Russ” Webster and Theresa Mitchell Webster, both prolific writers on aspects of Cape Cod and its maritime history, who have again teamed up for this book. Russ’s most recent book, co-authored with Michael Cicalese, was “New England’s Lifesaver: Coast Guard Legend Master Chief Jack Downey” (History Press, 2025). Downey plays a “pivotal role” in this search.

 “I’m 66 and Russ is 72,” Theresa said in an email interview last week. “So, in a sense, like us, millions had ‘grown up’ with JFK Jr. Writing about his passing was a tremendous responsibility to get right for the history books.”

 On the night of July 16, 1999, JFK Jr., his wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and her sister Lauren Bessette flew out of Essex County Airport in Caldwell, N.J. with JFK Jr. at the controls of his Piper Saratoga II. The couple’s ultimate destination was Cape Cod, where they planned to attend the wedding of JFK Jr.’s cousin at the Kennedy Compound in Hyannis Port. Along the way they would make a brief stop on Martha’s Vineyard to drop off Lauren.

 “All three — in the prime of their lives — will perish within 61 minutes,” the Websters write in their book that, even though we know how the tragic story ends, is still suspenseful. At 9:41 p.m. the plane hit the water 7.25 miles southwest of Martha’s Vineyard at a speed greater than 200 miles per hour. A fisherman heard a loud boom, and that was all.

 Around 10 p.m. Sen. Edward “Ted” Kennedy, also in Hyannis Port for the wedding, reported the airplane as missing to the FAA.

 “Our book begins where other editions of JFK Jr’s life have left off,” Theresa says. “We take a reader inside the government’s largest search for private citizens in a small air crash in U.S. waters in American history. The mission was simply unprecedented in scope and scale.” 

 The Websters, who live in Plymouth, spent 15 years researching and writing this book. Their “paramount guide” was the final incident report issued by the NTSB. To this they added personal interviews and information from newspaper clippings, books on the crash and government reports. On top of this were Russ’s own recollections.

 In the wee hours of the morning after the crash, Russ entered the story in an active role. In July 1999 he was a captain and the commander of Coast Guard Group Woods Hole on Cape Cod. Group Woods Hole included Cape Cod Bay, Vineyard Sound, Nantucket Sound and the Cape Cod Canal — 3,000 square miles. The wreck site was within his jurisdiction. On that early morning he was sleeping on the second floor of the Nobska Lighthouse keeper’s house when he was summoned to the group operations center, a three-minute drive away.

 It would not be until July 20 that the wreckage was found. On July 21 the bodies were recovered. In the intervening days, as the search continued, the international media ignited in a frenzy.

 The rescuers, Navy divers and NOAA engineers went without sleep, self-care and nourishment as they searched for the wreck because, as one of them told the Websters, “if we couldn’t save the father, we were going to bring the son home,” Theresa says.

 Russ says that pilots in particular might be interested in the book because it contains an analysis of how JKF Jr. might have been affected by “normalcy bias.” In this case, “John’s decision making appears to fit the profile where his decisions were influenced by his past routine of ‘nothing’ bad happening, likely impacting his delayed or ignored reactions to the circumstances.”

But “on an extremely dark, hazy night, arriving in complete darkness, it would have made more sense to continue north, following the coast, observing various visual reference points” until he clearly saw Martha’s Vineyard Airport, Russ says. “Normalcy bias is a silent, shadow factor in many decisions that prove fatal in aviation, vehicular and maritime cases.”

 The NTSB report concluded that the crash occurred because of the pilot’s “spatial disorientation” on a hazy, dark night with no visible horizon. Kennedy was not certified to fly by instruments.

 The Websters will appear for a conversation and book signing event at the Orleans Historical Society Meetinghouse at 3 River Rd. in Orleans, on Thursday, Nov. 5, from 4 to 6 p.m. Tickets are $30 for non-members and $25 for members and can be purchased through orleanshistoricalsociety.org. Proceeds will benefit the Save the CG36500 Campaign to build the Ocean Rescue Museum of Cape Cod.