John F. Kennedy, Jr.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Jr. (November 25, 1960 - July 16, 1999) was an American lawyer, journalist, publisher, and sex symbol. He was the son of President John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy and founder and publisher of George Magazine[?]. He was killed, along with his wife Caroline (née Bessette) and his sister-in-law, when the aircraft he was piloting crashed at sea off Martha's Vineyard.

Kennedy was flying the Piper Saratoga aircraft to Martha's Vineyard from Essex County Airport[?] in Fairfield, New Jersey, when it crashed over the Atlantic Ocean. He had just 310 hours of flight experience, including 55 hours of night flying experience, and 36 hours on the high-performance Piper Saratoga, and had completed about half of an instrument training course. The National Transportation Safety Board investigation found no evidence of mechanical malfunction in airframe, systems, avionics, or engine, and determined that the probable cause was "the pilot's failure to maintain control of the airplane during a descent over water at night, which was a result of spatial disorientation. Factors in the accident were haze, and the dark night." The report noted that spatial disorientation as a result of continued VFR flight into adverse weather conditions is a regular cause of fatal aircraft accidents.

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See also: Kennedy family

External link

• National Transportation Safety Board investigation final report (http://www.ntsb.gov/NTSB/brief.asp?ev_id=20001212X19354&key=1)