July 16: On This Day in World History … briefly
Kennedy's last will and testament stipulated that his personal belongings, property, and holdings were to be 'evenly distributed' among his sister Caroline Kennedy's three children, who were among 14 beneficiaries in his will.
1999: John F Kennedy dies in a plane crash
On the evening of July 16, 1999, John F Kennedy Jr, son of US president John F Kennedy, died when the light aircraft he was flying crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. Kennedy’s wife Carolyn Bessette and sister-in-law Lauren Bessette were also on board and died. The single-engine Piper Saratoga had departed from New Jersey’s Essex County Airport, and its intended route was along the coastline of Connecticut and across Rhode Island Sound to Martha’s Vineyard Airport.
The official investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) concluded that Kennedy fell victim to spatial disorientation while he was descending over water at night and consequently lost control of his plane. Kennedy did not hold an instrument rating and therefore he was only certified to fly under visual flight rules. At the time of the crash, the weather and light conditions were such that all basic landmarks were obscured, making visual flight challenging, although legally still permissible.
Most notable historic snippets or facts extracted from the book ‘On This Day’ first published in 1992 by Octopus Publishing Group Ltd, London, as well as additional supplementary information extracted from Wikipedia.
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