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Last Known Person to See JFK Jr. and Wife Carolyn Bessette Describes the Night of Their Fatal Flight
Pilot Kyle Bailey, who is said to be the last known person to see John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette Kennedy alive, is looking back on the night of their tragic plane crash.
In an interview with People published Wednesday, February 11, Bailey explained that he was also at Essex County Airport in New Jersey on July 16, 1999, the same night that JFK Jr., 38, and his wife, 33 — along with Carolyn’s sister Lauren Bessette, 34 — were en route to Martha’s Vineyard Airport.
Lauren was to be dropped off at Martha’s Vineyard, while the Kennedys planned to fly to Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, to attend the wedding of his cousin Rory Kennedy. However, the aircraft crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off Martha’s Vineyard, and all three died in the incident.
Bailey, who was 25 at the time, also planned to fly to Martha’s Vineyard but changed his mind that night.
“It was getting hazier and hazier as the temperature went up and my concern was that the fog that develops along the coast could happen quickly,” he explained. “The concern was, if the fog blanketed everything as I was getting closer to the island, there would be no way for me to maintain visual sight of the airport upon approach.”
“You need a visual horizon to maintain level flight,” he added.
He described the Kennedys’ last night at Essex County Airport as a “quiet one” and said that he saw the couple having a “private discussion” before they took off.
Bailey recalled that the sky was “a deep orange” as the sun was setting and that it was “hazy, hot and humid.”
As the plane ascended, “I remember thinking, ‘I hope he has an instructor with him,’” he told the outlet.
However, it was just the three of them on that plane.
The following day, when Bailey went to check the weather, he recalled learning of “a missing airplane alert” that described JFK Jr.’s Piper Saratoga
“My heart sunk,” he said, “because it was John’s tail number.”
The Kennedys’ relationship will be explored in the upcoming Ryan Murphy series Love Story, which will debut Thursday, February 12, on FX and FX on Hulu.
