John F. Kennedy Jr. was Vero Beach flight school student and CJ Cannon's regular in 1990s

July 16 is the 25th anniversary of John F. Kennedy Jr. dying in a plane crash in 1999, which was news that hit close to home for Vero Beach, where he had learned to fly a year earlier and returned for more training a few months earlier.

The former president's famous son, who used the alias John Cole while in Vero Beach, was a licensed student pilot at the former FlightSafety Academy at the Vero Beach Regional Airport in December 1997. He obtained his private pilot's license from there on April 22, 1998, according to Federal Aviation Administration data.

He was a regular customer at C.J. Cannons restaurant in the airport and spent time at the Riverside Cafe, Bobby's Restaurant & Lounge and the Jungle Club sports complex, now called Vero Fitness, TCPalm reported. He had expressed an interest in owning a summer home here, said Lois Cappelen, a C.J. Cannons manager who knew him.

Although he used an alias, most people knew he was the son of 35th U.S. President John F. Kennedy, she said.

"I'm sure that anybody that had a TV in Vero Beach was watching that (news)," said Cappelen, who is now 87. "We had the TVs on in here (the restaurant) and everybody that came in wanted to know if there was an update."

John F. Kennedy Jr. frequented Vero Beach airport restaurant

When Kennedy and other flight school students would eat at C.J. Cannons for breakfast, he usually ordered eggs, sausage, pancakes and orange juice, Cappelen said.

One time, he autographed a piece of paper, which has been hanging on the wall ever since. The restaurant later added a photo of him and a newspaper clipping about how he frequented the restaurant.

"If you recognized him and you went up to his table, he would stand up and just talk to you and answer all your questions," Cappelen remembered. "Very cordial, he was a great kid."

Vero Beach had another tie to the crash. Kennedy was piloting a Piper Saratoga built by Piper Aircraft, which is based at the Vero Beach airport. A Piper representative was sent to Martha's Vineyard to assist government investigators with any technical information needed, TCPalm reported in 1999.

JFK Jr. was flying a Piper Saratoga plane he crashed

Kennedy, 38; his wife, Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, 33; and her sister, Lauren Bessette, 34, died when the plane crashed into the Atlantic Ocean about 7.5 miles off Martha's Vineyard, The Washington Post reported.

After six days of searching the ocean, Navy divers recovered their bodies from 116 feet of water on July 21, 1999.

They were on their way to the July 17 wedding of Kennedy's cousin, Rory Kennedy, in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, and had taken off from the Essex County Airport in New Jersey. They crashed about 9:30 p.m. Her postponed wedding took place in Greece about 2½ weeks later, according to the Cape Code Times.

Pilot error was the most likely cause of the crash, according to a National Transportation Safety Board report released in July 2000.

A factor that could have led to Kennedy getting his training at FlightSafety Academy in Vero Beach is that it was the only FlightSafety International center offering primary instruction — instruction from zero hours and in real airplanes, instead of just simulators — according to David Elliott, a former FlightSafety Academy flight instructor.

Gianna Montesano is TCPalm’s trending reporter. You can contact her at gianna.montesano@tcpalm.com, 772-409-1429, or follow her on X @gonthescene.

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: John-John: John F. Kennedy Jr. died in plane crash on July 16, 1999