John F. Kennedy Jr's airplane crash was the fault of his wife, Carolyn

Although much sympathy has been extended to the family of Carolyn Bessette, who, as a passenger in the airplane, was apparently the innocent victim of the crash, news reports have indicated that it was to some extent her fault that the crash occurred.

John F. Kennedy Junior

They were going to a marriage party of a relative of JFK Jr. JFK Jr. wanted his wife to come, but she insisted that if she was to come, her sister must come as well. JFK Jr. and his wife arrived at the airport on time but the sister, Lauren Bessette, was late. Rather than leave without her, they waited. When she finally arrived, it was already starting to get dark. No doubt Carolyn and her sister did not realize the danger this created and that flying at night over the ocean with no city lights to guide them created a dangerous situation. No doubt, JFK Jr. should in hindsight have called off the trip and scheduled it for another day or should have changed plans and taken a longer land route instead of flying over the ocean. However, it is understandable that he did not want to change plans, which had been made so far in advance. So, he stuck to the plan, became disoriented over the ocean and, not being able to see because it was night, flew in the wrong direction out into the ocean, ran out of fuel and crashed.

The pilot must bear ultimate responsibility in such as situation, but the fact remains that had Lauren Bessette reached the airport on time or had Carolyn not insisted on bringing along her sister, the crash would not have occurred.

Sam Sloan

What is your opinion of this? Tell us in the guestbook!.

UPDATE: I have received a letter from a reader:

I do not often read my own guestbooks and I did not see your posting until a few days ago.

That particular guestbook was messed up when someone who did not like the guestbook posted about a megabyte of abusive messages. I had to spend almost an hour deleting all this. That is why you will see that there is a time gap during which nobody posted to that guestbook.

Your letter is very interesting. I would like to have your permission to post it on my web site, most probably as an update at the bottom of one of my jfk-jr pages and with or without your e-mail address included.

Can I have your permission to do that?

Sam Sloan

At 01:32 AM 5/19/00 -0700, Bruce Marsack wrote: Wow, that was almost two months ago.

Yes, I am a Navy pilot.

I do not mean to be irreverent to JFK Jr., or especially to his surviving family. However, the human physiology has many limitations (instincts) which make us terrible intuitive flyers. He did not have the training to deal with the conditions in which he was flying. He probably did not even know enough to know that he was getting in over his head.

I have 230 carrier landings, approx. 60 of them at night. I have had vertigo behind the ship, yet still got aboard. When instincts fail all that is left is your training--which unfortunately, he did not have.

Before I go flying, I have to "sign for the jet". We joke that the signature is "for prosecuting purposes only". However, I am ultimately responsible for the safety of flight. If one of my flights get delayed and a storm sets in, but I still go... that decision rests squarely on my shoulders.

You will never see the Navy blame a passenger for the pilot's conduct of flight, and I found it very distasteful to see JFK Jr's mishap blamed on someone else.

With his level of experience and the information that he had, his actions were not reckless, they were just beyond his level.

Let me repeat myself, I do not mean to be irreverent to JFK Jr., or especially to his surviving family.

By the way, why the sudden interest in a pilot point of view?

Sincerely,

Bruce Marsack
LT US Navy

----- Original Message ----- From: Sam Sloan To: bsatchel707@netzero.net Sent: Tuesday, May 16, 2000 9:03 PM Subject: Are you really a pilot?

Are you really a pilot?

I am wondering about your comment on my website about the death of JFK Junior.

Sam Sloan

Lauren Bessette, Carolyn Bessette and Lisa Ann Bessette walk together just days before Lauren and Carolyn were killed along with JFK Jr. in an airplane crash

Here are links:

My Home Page

Contact address - please send e-mail to the following address: Sloan@ishipress.com