Last person to see JFK Jr. alive reveals deep concerns about flight

Kyle Bailey felt a “deep concern” as he watched John F. Kennedy Jr., Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and Lauren Bessette climb aboard the small aircraft that will by no means attain its vacation spot.

On July 16, 1999, the trio perished when the single-engine aircraft Kennedy was piloting crashed into the Atlantic Ocean close to Martha’s Vineyard. At the time, Bailey had additionally deliberate to fly to the island off the coast of Massachusetts however modified his thoughts due to “iffy” climate situations.

Bailey, a licensed pilot and aviation analyst for Fox News — and the final recognized person to see Kennedy his spouse and sister-in-law alive — you’ve got written a brand new ebook, “Witness: JFK Jr.’s Fatal Flight.” It examines the circumstances that led to the tragedy.

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“I’ve seen John do that trip many, many times,” the 52-year-old informed Fox News Digital. “It was just a typical Friday night. I planned on making two flights, an earlier flight in the afternoon, which I did for about an hour, just to go up for a spin. And then the nighttime flight was longer. It was, as we say in aviation, the three H’s — hazy, hot and humid. Your typical New York City July day and evening.”

“From my experience, I sensed that, based on those conditions, there probably would be reduced visibility that night up in Martha’s Vineyard,” Bailey mentioned. “It didn’t mean I was going to cancel my trip right then, though.”

John Kennedy, Jr., spouse Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and her sister, Lauren Bessette (left, leather-based coat) outdoors Bubby’s in Tribeca on Nov. 15, 1997. All three perished collectively in a aircraft crash off Martha’s Vineyard on July 16, 1999. (Lawrence Schwartzwald/Sygma through Getty Images)

Bailey, then 25, was at Essex County Airport in New Jerseywhen Kennedy arrived in an unassuming automobile. At one level, the journal writer even whizzed by Bailey to purchase a bottle of water and a banana from the comfort retailer. Everything appeared abnormal, mentioned Bailey.

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When Bailey launched into his first quick journey, he seen that visibility “wasn’t great.” After touchdown, I monitored the climate. But as temperatures rose, it grew to become hazier, elevating concerns that fog may rapidly develop alongside the coast.

Bailey determined to name off his journey.

John F. Kennedy Jr. is seen right here along with his canine on Friday, Dec. 30, 1996 at a Montana airport. (Anne Sherwood/Getty Images)

“I decided that night to cancel the flight,” he mentioned. “I was mad, but it was the right decision for me.”

John Kennedy Jr. stored a low profile as he arrived for his doomed flight. (Lawrence Schwartzwald/Sygma through Getty Images)

Still, Bailey continued to hold an in depth eye on the situations.

“I was noticing that the temperature and dew point, those spreads were getting closer and closer,” he defined. “In weather, what that means is, there’s a very high probability of ground fog developing. In John’s case, perhaps he wasn’t told that or didn’t know. You really can’t fault him for that, for what he doesn’t know or what he wasn’t told.”

John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette Kennedy attend an exhibition on the Whitney Museum in New York City on Nov. 4, 1996. (Sonia Moskowitz/Getty Images)

“I knew from experience on those very hot, hazy, humid summer nights, fog and low visibility could be a problem, especially flying over water,” he shared.

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“Witness — JFK Jr.’s Fatal Flight: The Last Witness,” is accessible now. (Independently Published)

“In John’s case, especially at nighttime, he was planning on leaving after I was going to. It would’ve been more challenging for a VFR pilot with hazy, hot, humid conditions, a partial horizon, and now, on top of that, total darkness.”

“For a VFR pilot at night, when you lose that horizon, it’s like jumping off the edge of the earth into a complete sea of ​​darkness,” he added.

John F. Kennedy Jr. bicycling on Block Island. (Rick Maiman/Sygma through Getty Images)

After Kennedy quietly accomplished his pre-flight checks, Bailey noticed his aircraft take off at 8:38 pm

John F. Kennedy Jr. sits along with his leg in a forged on the George Magazine “Politicians vs. Pundits” auto race held on the US Air Arena on June 15, 1999, in Landover, MD. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

“I went home to my mother that night and said something to the effect of, ‘I just saw JFK Jr. at the airport. I hope he doesn’t kill himself someday in that airplane,'” Bailey recalled.

“That Piper Saratoga was a new airplane for him. It was complex and high-performance, unlike his older airplane, which he had just sold. I really hoped he had his instructor with him. I was just concerned for him. Was it a premonition? Possibly. But it was more of a deep concern for John and the two others.”

John F. Kennedy Jr. and his spouse Carolyn Bessette Kennedy had been supposed to attend Rory Kennedy’s marriage ceremony. (Arnaldo Magnani/Getty Images)

Kennedy had bought the aircraft in April 1999, months earlier than the crash. According to experiences, he had logged only some dozen hours within the Saratoga with restricted evening expertise within the plane.

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Where John Kennedy Jr. stored his Piper Saratoga airplane. (Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection through Getty Images)

“I wasn’t sure if he had an instructor aboard the airplane,” Bailey mentioned. “After the tragedy, a lot of people would come up to me and say, ‘Why did you let him take off? Why didn’t you say something?’ The answer is, I didn’t know who was on the plane with them.

“I noticed the three of them board the aircraft, however since I wasn’t mounted on that aircraft the complete time, I wasn’t certain if an teacher walked over there. That’s why I did not say something. I simply hoped he had an teacher with him. The situations weren’t horrible, however they weren’t nice.”

“I went residence to my mom that evening and mentioned one thing to the impact of, ‘I simply noticed JFK Jr. on the airport. I hope he would not kill himself sometime on that aircraft.'”

—Kyle Bailey, author of “Witness.”

John F. Kennedy Jr. gives his wife Carolyn a kiss on the cheek during the annual White House Correspondents dinner on May 1, 1999, in Washington, DC (Tyler Mallory/Liaison/Getty Images)

Bailey didn’t know that earlier in the day, Kennedy had told his flight instructor he didn’t need him for the journey and that he “wished to do it alone.”

An aerial view of Martha’s Vineyard. (Jewel Samad/AFP via Getty Images)

The plan seemed simple. Kennedy would first fly to Martha’s Vineyard and drop off his sister-in-law. Then he and his wife would head to Hyannis Port for the wedding of his cousin, Rory Kennedy, the next day.

But at the time, Kennedy was still in the process of completing his instrument training and was flying by visual flight rules. While he had about 300 hours of flying experience, he was recovering from a broken ankle. It was also a dark, moonless night.

A business card belonging to Lauren Bessette, sister-in-law of John F. Kennedy, Jr., was used as a luggage tag on a travel bag recovered on July 17, 1999, at Philbin Beach. (Evan Richman/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

Under those conditions, investigators believe Kennedy may have struggled to see shore lights or other landmarks to help guide him.

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A Coast Guard ship carrying Senator Ted Kennedy and his son, Congressman Patrick Kennedy, passes by the lighthouse in Gay Head, Massachusetts, as they head to the USS Grasp, which recovered the body of John F. Kennedy Jr. six miles off Gay Head, on July 21, 1999. (Stephen Jaffe/AFP via Getty Images)

Bailey said the “graveyard spiral“Quickly came to mind.

“It’s a fast turning descent of the airplane,” he said. “In John’s case, it might be from shedding that visible horizon. Your thoughts is enjoying tips with you, saying you are straight, you are turning, however you actually aren’t.”

A Coast Guard helicopter hovering over the ocean during the search for John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife Carolyn and her sister Lauren. (Steve Liss/Getty Images)

“Imagine you’ve got the management column in entrance of you,” Bailey explained. “You pull again, the aircraft goes up. You push ahead, and that goes down. You flip the management proper or left, and you realize the aircraft will flip. But when you’re a novice pilot or in case your thoughts is enjoying tips on you, your first intuition is to pull that management column again. But being that the airplane is in a flip and the wings aren’t degree, it is really tightening that spiral and rising the G-forces.

A tv technician holds up the official handout map of the search and rescue space off Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, earlier than a press convention on July 21, 1999. (John Mottern/AFP through Getty Images)

“If you put enough G-force on the airplane, you could overstress the components, like the wing and tail. You could have structural failure. But in John’s case, the result was crashing into the ocean, unfortunately.”

On Saturday morning, Bailey checked the climate at an FAA flight service station. He puzzled if he may fly that day as a substitute. But a missing-airplane alert was issued — to Piper Saratoga that had departed Essex County Airport that Friday night.

Bailey’s coronary heart sank.

John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette Kennedy stand in entrance of their condominium in Tribecca in New York City. (Jon Naso/NY Daily News Archive through Getty Images)

“I immediately recognized the color of the Saratoga and the tail number,” he mentioned. “I hoped, praying that possibly he turned again or was in Martha’s Vineyard on the bottom.

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Police maintain a security zone for the press outside the Kennedy compound in Hyannisport, Massachusetts, on July 18, 1999. (John Mottern/AFP via Getty Images)

“I bear in mind I informed my household, ‘If this aircraft shouldn’t be discovered inside two hours, he’s in all probability a goner, together with the opposite two on the aircraft. I assumed the worst, however hoped for the very best that there was possibly even a slim likelihood somebody could be discovered alive. But behind my thoughts, I knew that it was just about not going to occur.’

The wreckage of the Piper Saratoga was discovered 5 days later. Navy divers recovered the our bodies of Kennedy, 38, Bessette Kennedy, 33 and Bessette, 34, from the ocean ground.

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Flowers and {a photograph}, left in entrance of the Tribeca condominium constructing the place John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr. lived, as a show of sympathy after he misplaced his life crashing into the Atlantic Ocean whereas flying a Piper Saratoga mild plane. (Andrew Holbrooke/Corbis through Getty Images)

“The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of the accident to be: the pilot’s failure to maintain control of the airplane during a descent over water at night, which was a result of spatial disorientation,” the report learn. “Factors in the accident were haze and the dark night.”