Crash Site Map & Data

Below is the map of the crash site.

JFK Jr, Carolyn Buried At Sea

July 22, 1999

The Kennedy family bid a tearful adieu to John F. Kennedy Jr, his wife and sister-in-law scattering their mortal remains into the sea off Martha's Vineyard, where the three met their watery grave in a plane crash last Friday.

The ashes of John, his wife Carolyn Bessette and her sister Lauren Bessette were immersed in the Atlantic Ocean about five km from the crash site by a group of 15 members of the Kennedy and Bessette families aboard the navy destroyer USS Brisco.

The bodies were received on Wednesday from the wreckage of the six-seater Piper Saratoga 32 piloted by John himself and were cremated after an autopsy at the Barnstable County Hospital.

Dressed in black clothing, the mourners included John's sister, Caroline, his uncle Senator Edward M. Kennedy, and cousins Maria Shriver and William Kennedy Smith. The Mother of the Bessette sisters, Ann Freeman, stepfather Richard Freeman, and Lauren's twin sister, Lisa Ann Bessette.

Three folded American flags and three wreaths with red, yellow and white flowers had been placed on the ship. St.Thomas More's Roman Catholic church on new York's upper east side, where Kennedys mother, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, often attended mass, said it would hold a memorial service for Kennedy and his wife Friday morning.

President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton attended the service.