Section A • Page 6
The University Daily Kansan
Wednesday, July 21. 1999
JFK Jr. search and recovery continues
The Associated Press
AQUINNAH, Mass. — John F. Kennedy Jr. pulled up his plane and banked to the right in a normal approach to Martha's Vineyard. Then the plane dropped rapidly to the water, officials said yesterday.
Chief investigator Robert Pearce declined to speculate on the force of the impact, but said: "I'm sure you can draw a conclusion by the debris we've been bringing in, which is fragmented."
At a briefing yesterday, Pearce, who is leading the investigation for the National Transportation Safety Board, gave a more detailed explanation of Kennedy's approach to Martha's Vineyard.
All seemed fine about 34 miles from the airport. The plane had been descending from 5,600 feet to about 2,300 feet at a slightly faster-than-normal rate of about 700 feet per minute. About 20 miles from the airport, the plane started turning to the right and climbing slightly back to 2,600 feet.
After leveling off at that altitude, it flew for a short time more before beginning another turn to the right and starting a rapid rate of descent that may have exceeded 5,000 feet per minute. That is 10 times faster than normal.
Some aviation experts said Kennedy could have been experiencing a problem common among young pilots: spatial disorientation.
"Your middle ear can be tricked, and what you think is up is sideways, and what you think is sideways is up," said David Hinson, a former Federal Aviation Administration executive.
He noted that Kennedy also could have been responding to mechanical failure, an empty fuel tank or any other number of problems.
but several experienced pilots who flew into the Vineyard on Friday night said that the hazy skies and darkness were challenging, even for them.
Yesterday, divers plunged into the waters off Martha's Vineyard from small patrol boats, a Navy salvage ship, Coast Guard cutters and inflatable rafts.
Coast Guard Rear Adm.
Richard M. Larrabee said investigators believe the
Kennedy: divers continue to look for plane wreckage.
plane crashed into the water about 7 and one half miles southwest of Aquinnah.
"During the course of this morning's sonar operations, (we) picked up a target that we felt had the characteristics that we were looking for," Larrabee said.
The plane was carrying Kennedy, 38; his wife, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, 33; and her sister, Lauren Bessette, 34. Kennedy the pilot,
planned to drop off his sister-in-law on the island and continue to his cousin's wedding in Hyannis Port.
A call, made by 21-year-old Adam Budd, expressed no great urgency as he telephoned an FAA station in Bridgeport, Conn., at 10:05 p.m. Friday, FAA officials said. He said he called at the request of an unidentified couple who had come to the airport to meet Lauren Bessette.
Budd asked if the agency could track the airplane, but the person at the FAA station questioned him repeatedly about who he was and finally said that the information could not be given on the phone.
"It's not a big deal," Budd said as he ended the conversation.
No action was taken until a much more urgent call was made to the Coast Guard at 2:15 a.m. by a Kennedy family friend.
As it turned out, the plane had gone down about 9:40 p.m.
An FAA representative said the agency does not provide information on private citizens and private aircraft on the telephone, and the person on the other end of the call acted appropriately.
Sources close to the family said arrangements for a memorial service at a Roman Catholic Church in New York City were being discussed. The service is to be held Thursday or Friday.
Book publishers capitalize on celebrity deaths
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — Moments after lamenting the death of John F. Kennedy Jr. as an "ice pick to my heart," author Stephen J. Spignes asked a question on the minds of many writers: "How's my book doing?"
As of Monday afternoon, his book, "The J.F.K. Jr. Scrapbook," published in 1997, was No. 24 on Amazon.com's Hot 100 list.
"No. 24!" he said excitedly. "It was No. 30 earlier in the day, and it's been as high as 17. Last week it was something like 68,000!"
In the increasingly sped-up world of publishing, grief can get left behind.
As with Princess Diana and other celebrities who died, the aftermath of Kennedy's plane
crash is a time for thinking of new books, updating old ones and getting out-of-print editions back in print.
Signet, a mass market division of Penguin Putnam Inc., is reissuing Wendy Leigh's "Prince Charming: The John F. Kennedy Jr. Story," a 1994 biography that Monday reached No. 72 on Amazon.com. A memorial edition is planned for next week, with a printing of 100,000.
"No biographer wants to be in this position," Leigh said. "But it's a story that needs to be told and delaying it doesn't make it end any more happily."
Appearing at No. 76 on the Internet seller's list was "John F. Kennedy Jr.: A Life in the Spotlight," a 1996 publication. Andrews McMeel Publishing will ship 200,000 copies of
Mary Ellen Keating, a spokeswoman for Barnes & Noble Inc., said the superstore chain had no plans for special Kennedy displays but that it did order seven times as many copies of Time and Newsweek. She also reported strong sales for Kennedy's magazine, George, which had been struggling.
a new edition, available in early August.
“It’s been going fast since Saturday,” she said. One Kennedy biographer who said he had no immediate plans to write about the family was Christopher Andersen, author of two Kennedy-related best sellers: “Jack and Jackie” and “Jackie After Jack.” When asked if he would update either, he responded that it was too soon.
"It's time for people to let it sink in," he said. "It's such a phenomenal occurrence."
The Associated Press
Nation remembers son of slain president
BOSTON — They came by the busloads, young and old, the poor and the privileged alike, from the West Coast and Middle America, to mourn John F. Kennedy Jr. at the library named for his father.
Behind the library, overlooking Boston Harbor, an American flag flew at half-staff as divers off the coast of Martha's Vineyard continued to search for the wreckage of the plane Kennedy was piloting Friday.
"He's our prince, and we'll miss the images, the beauty," said Gloria Christison of San Francisco, who had been vacationing on Cape Cod with her husband.
Afterward, her husband, David, with tears in his eyes and his voice breaking, said, "They were real good people. John Jr., he was a common person. He was just a good guy."
The John F. Kennedy Library and Museum invited the public to sign a book of condolences Tuesday in the lobby on a small table along with fresh flowers and a photo.
Mary Hogan, who is from the working-class Dorchester section of Boston where the library is situated, arrived bearing three red roses that she placed among a few dozen other bouquets along an outside wall.
Some wept when they looked at the framed color photo of JFK Jr. in a tuxedo, and his wife, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, in a black evening gown, holding hands as they arrived for a dinner at the library in May last year.
"I've always admired the family,"
Sharon Zimmerman of Athens, Ohio, wrote: "Our deepest sympathy, prayers and love are with you and your families through your tragic loss."
she said. "They've received, given and endured much with great courage and grace. They've had to take a lot of flak from lesser people. I just want them to know that there are millions of us they'll never meet, who will hold them in their hearts."
Hundreds signed the book, and by early afternoon, the wait was 45 minutes.
Tom McNaught, a spokesman for the library, said it had been flooded with calls, and the condolence book was one way to give people a means to express their grief.
Kennedy had served as vice chairman of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation. He and his wife had visited the library just this May for the annual fund-raising dinner. He and his sister, Caroline Kennedy, donated $1 million two years ago.
Terry Purtell of Quincy brought her four daughters, ages 4 to 14, to sign the book. She said the family had been watching television all weekend on the search for the plane carrying Kennedy, 38, his wife, 33, and her sister Lauren Bessette, 34.
Purtell remembered when a 3-year-old JFK Jr. saluted his father's casket at his funeral in 1963. She was watching then. Now her children watch the latest Kennedy tragedy.
"They wanted to be here," she said. "It's a big part of history. It's very important to be here."
The condolence books will be given to Caroline Kennedy to share with the Bessette family, then returned to the library's archives. An earlier set of condolence books following the death of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis in 1994 was given to her children. Those books are now in the archives.
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