A Cape Cod Times photographer remembers covering the 1999 Kennedy plane crash

The Saturday shift routine back in 1999 always started with a quick listen to WQRC first thing in the morning to catch up with overnight news. I am not sure where I was headed on that July 17th morning, but I know exactly where I was when I heard the news, on Route 6A by the Cummaquid post office.

The news bulletin reported John F. Kennedy Jr.’s plane had gone missing Friday night en route from New Jersey to Martha’s Vineyard. His wife, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, and her sister, Lauren Bessette, were also on board.

Heart and car racing, I headed straight to the Kennedy compound in Hyannisport, working the old Motorola flip phone to alert editors to my whereabouts and the breaking news. Parking was no problem at that hour when I arrived. Barnstable P.D.’s Fred Rivers was stationed at the end of Marchant Avenue on Irving Avenue. The usual media staging area for anything at the Kennedy Compound.

Going to be a long day

Fog was burning off Nantucket Sound on a typical hazy hot July day. A Kennedy press secretary brought out bottled water for us and noted it was going to be a long day. There were only a couple of other people there. The Compound was preparing for Rory Kennedy’s wedding that day, the reason for JFK Jr.’s flight. The flag outside was still at full staff.

There wasn’t much to photograph. We were still using film cameras, so I didn’t want to waste many frames. I remember tension but stillness in the early minutes on scene, knowing the biggest media assault ever on those quiet streets was racing to a position I had essentially to myself. Arrive it did. With each passing hour, the group would double in size. Satellite broadcast trucks lined Irving Avenue as police set up barricades to keep the street open for arriving members of the Kennedy family, heading to Rose Kennedy’s home to mourn yet another untimely death. Staff photographer Vince Dewitt took up a position down by the breakwater where he made one of the best photographs of the day as Kennedy family members gathered on the beach stunned and looking out to sea.

From the air off Aquinnah

Photo editor Arnold Miller called to send me to the airport around 11 a.m. The paper had secured a helicopter and I was to fly to Martha’s Vineyard and photograph what I could from the air off Aquinnah on the island’s western tip. I picked up extra film at the office and took off.

It was hazy and most of the airspace was closed off near the search area. There was a photo of ATVs on the beach looking for debris and that was about all I got from the air. Landing at the Vineyard airport, I secured a rental car and headed west to Aquinnah. I made a few photos of the ground search along the rocky coastline. By late afternoon, satellite trucks had started to arrive on island, and I headed back to the airport to ship my film back to the paper for processing and scanning. The paper had a small bureau with a shower and couch in Edgartown on Main Street, which became my home for the next couple of days. Arriving with only camera gear and a cell phone, I bought a towel, extra shirt and a toothbrush.

News of the wreckage found

The search intensified on Sunday, I spent most of that day at the Menemsha Coast Guard Station where State Police divers were staged. Monday, I joined a group of news photographers and chartered a boat to head west to see if we could get close to any boats in the search area but didn’t come back with much, just far away images of boats. Tuesday the wreckage had been found and the Navy salvage ship Grasp was on scene.  When word came in the bodies had been found and were being brought back to Woods Hole, I left the Vineyard. Times photographer Ron Schloerb was there as a motorcade escorted the remains to the medical examiner’s office.

The next day all the media assembled in Woods Hole, lined six deep along Water Hole Road, all eyes on the Coast Guard Station. The Navy destroyer Briscoe was waiting offshore to take the Kennedy family out to the crash area for a burial at sea. Strong winds hampered their transport from shore to ship. The first photos of them I had made the entire six days covering the story. When the family arrived back, winds picked up even more, delaying their departure back to shore.

Looking back 25 years to that period before 9/11, it is a wonder how much media access we had. There were no smart phones with immediate internet access and the ability to take and send a photograph anywhere instantly. But relying on our well-honed news gathering skills, the tragic story was told from start to finish. A quarter century later, on Saturday mornings, I know to be ready, anything can happen.

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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Photo shoot: What I remember when JFK Jr.'s plane crashed 25 years ago