All language subtitles for How.It.Really.Happened.S01E11_English

King: Do you ever fear
your own health?

My own health?

Yeah, there are nuts
in this country.

No.

The Kennedys must think
about it.

How could they
not think about?

It's not something that it's
sort of, like, walking around

wondering if you're going
to be struck by lightning.

It's kind of --
it's just not something

that you really keep in
the forefront of your mind much.

But it might affect
decision-making, right,

going into politics,
right?

Right, but it doesn't.

♪♪

♪♪

Hey, everyone. Welcome to
"How It Really Happened."

I'm Hill Harper.

To many Americans,
he's simply known as John-John,

a nickname
created by the press

and one that Jackie Kennedy
once admitted he hated.

He was the heir
to his father's legacy.

However, John F. Kennedy Jr.

strove to be his own man,
aware of the expectations

but set on creating
a life of his own making,

but that life was tragically
cut short at 38 years old.

Tonight, an investigation
into his mysterious plane crash.

What really happened to JFK Jr.?

Man: The U. S. Coast Guard
is conducting a search

off of the coast
of New York,

extending now up to Martha's
Vineyard for a private aircraft

that, apparently,
has now gone overdue.

The Coast Guard is saying to CNN
that onboard that plane

was believed to be
John F. Kennedy Jr.

Cuomo:
The situation at the beginning

was as devastating
as it was simple.

What we knew was
the plane was gone.

They couldn't find it.

It wasn't on radar anymore.

The information
that we had gotten

was that John F. Kennedy Jr..
his wife,

and her sister were on a flight
from Caldwell, New Jersey,

stopping at Martha's Vineyard,

then eventually
going to Cape Cod.

We really didn't have
a good sense

of what had happened
or where they were.

Amanpour:
I remember when the news
first trickled in

about John's
first disappearance.

The international desk,
as a courtesy, I think,

because they knew
we were friends, called me,

and they said,
"Have you seen the news?"

and, "We just want to keep you
abreast of what little we know."

Bailey: There was
a missing-airplane alert,

and then in my mind it clicked,

"That's JFK Jr.'s
Piper Saratoga."

I went out to the living room
of my friend Patricia's house,

and she said "John Kennedy Jr.'s
plane is missing,"

and I said,
"What does that mean?"

And she said, "They don't know."

And we all sort of had theories
like maybe they ran out of gas

and landed on an island
somewhere.

Amanpour: Maybe he'd got lost.

Maybe he'd stopped somewhere
with his wife and sister-in-law.

Maybe he was going to come back.

Berman:
RoseMarie, John's assistant,

I think she said to me
something like,

"you know what, I bet you
the weather was bad,

and they landed,
and they're at,

like,
at a Holiday Inn somewhere,

and he's going to be so
embarrassed when he wakes up,

and he sees, you know,
what's going on in the news."

I just kept thinking
he's going to kill me

if this gets out because I know
he's going to be fine,

and they're going to kill me.
They're going to be like,

"How did you let this
get so out of control?"

We can confirm that the FAA

cleared the airplane
for takeoff,

and the airplane did take off
at 8:38 P.M.

on Friday, July 16th.

That plane left our airspace
without any problem.

What happened after that
remains a mystery.

The flying community
here at this airport

hope for the best
but fear the worst.

Did the plane go down in water?

Were they going to find
the wreckage?

Had they done a crash-landing?

Had they crash-landed
into the sea,

and they'd swum off into --

these were all
the sorts of questions.

Man:
A search is actively under way
off the coast of Long Island

extending all the way up
to Martha's Vineyard.

That Saturday was
the third anniversary

of the TWA 800 accident.

I had planned to go up
to Long Island.

I was told the Coast Guard had
initiated a search and rescue.

We were woken up this morning
to a call

that a plane had been overdue,
apparently JFK Jr.'s airplane.

Hall:
We hoped that their job would
be successful in terms of rescue

so that we would not
have to do our job,

which would be, obviously,
a full investigation.

Woman:
Waiting and watching, Frank.

There's not a lot of news coming
out of the family compound.

We were the first people
on the air with this mystery of,

where is John Jr.?

Cuomo:
There are just cameras trained
on the water off the vineyard.

There's shots of the shore,
trying to get information.

In terms of a news story
in my life,

it rarely got bigger than
what was starting to unfold.

It was extraordinary because
of the nature of the story,

the person involved, and the
history of the Kennedy family.

Cuomo: There was only one
John Kennedy Jr.

He meant something.

He represented something.

So the idea of losing him
was so wrong

on so many different levels
for generations of Americans.

[ Projector whirring ]

Lonnstrom: Yeah, he was born
November 25, 1960.

His father had just been
elected president

of the United States
a few weeks before that.

Well, now my wife and I prepare
for a new administration

and for a new baby.

Thank you.

Tuchman:
John F. Kennedy, when he was
President of the United States,

had this amazingly
beautiful family,

whether you liked him
politically or not.

What's your
earliest memory?

We had a dog
who was named Pushinka.

We trained it
to slide down this slide

that we had in the back
of the White House.

But probably memories
of your father are not great?

They're great,
but they're not plentiful.

Cuomo: From a young age, John
was fascinated with aviation.

You could see it in so many
of the photos

and films that had been taken.

Right away, there are
photographs of young JFK Jr.

in Air Force One,
holding airplanes,

on the president's helicopter
in the pilot seat.

JFK Jr. obviously
loved airplanes,

loved playing with airplanes,
loved being in airplanes.

Lonnstrom:
There's a picture of him
being held back by his mother

because he wanted to run

because his father
was gonna take off without him,

and he thought that was awful.

Pierre Salinger, the
presidential press secretary,

told me of the famous images

of John running
to greet his father.

He would run right past
his father to that helicopter,

because that's what
he really wanted

was a ride
on that chopper.

One could look at it
as a foreshadowing

but an inevitability, really.

He had to get up into the skies,

and he knew this
before he could even speak.

[ Camera shutter clicks ]

Thomas:
There's nothing remarkable
about a photograph

of a little kid
holding an airplane,

but, of course, in retrospect,
given how he died,

there is a kind of sadness
to those photographs.

I wouldn't say
they're so much ominous

as kind of they make you
shake your head

knowing where fate
would take that little boy.

Andersen: Jackie wanted them
to have a normal life,

as normal
as humanly possible.

Of course, all of that ended
on November 22, 1963,

with the assassination
of the president.

♪♪

Thomas: When President Kennedy
was killed in 1963,

the country, the world
was riveted by the funeral,

and the image of young
John F. Kennedy Jr.

saluting his father's coffin
is the image that stuck forever.

That famous picture that you
must've seen 7 zillion times,

the little boy,
do you remember that?

I think that what happens is
that you see an image

so many times
that you begin to believe,

remember the image,
but I'm not sure I really do.

Cuomo: I remember the image well
because it became a metaphor,

and from that point
in his life,

John became more than a boy,
more than a man.

He became a moment.

He became a message.

He became a promise
of potential.

At this hour,
here is what we know.

There was no distress call,
and there was no evidence

that there had been
any sort of plane crash.

Tuchman:
People were stunned because
everyone felt

like they grew up
with John F. Kennedy Jr.

Kagan: At this hour,
here is what we know.

Dozens of police officers
and investigators

have resumed
their search on land, air.

and water
for John F. Kennedy Jr.,

his wife and sister-in-law.

Camerota: It was a mystery.

There was no distress call,
and there was no evidence

that there had been
any sort of plane crash.

There was no wreckage.

I mean, he had vanished.

Andersen: What hampered
the search tremendously

was that John never bothered
to file a flight plan.

Now, you don't have to file
a flight plan,

but given the circumstances,

it would've obviously
been the wise thing to do.

Larrabee: The initial search
was over a huge area,

and because we didn't
have a flight plan,

they had to go back and look
at all that radar data,

and so it took a while
to do that.

We worked at that point
with the FAA.

They were able to determine
the flight path of the airplane

and determine that it was likely
going to be someplace

south of Martha's Vineyard,

and we began to sort of focus,
narrow down,

if you will, the search area.

I was just sitting
by a television.

I mean, as I said, every day,
you know, I was, you know,

waiting,
hoping for the best.

Tuchman: People were stunned,
because everyone

felt like they grew up
with John F. Kennedy Jr.

Andersen:
After the assassination,
Jackie was devastated,

and she decided in 1964

that she had to move back
to New York City,

where she basically grew up.

[ Camera shutter clicks ]

Thomas: There's no way
that John F. Kennedy Jr.

could have a normal childhood,
but his mother tried.

My thanks to all of you,
and now it's onto Chicago,

and let's win there.

Thomas: When Bobby Kennedy
was assassinated in 1968,

she said, "If they're
killing Kennedys,

my children
are the obvious target."

Andersen:
She married the notorious
shipping magnate,

Aristotle Onassis, and instantly
the world turned on Jackie.

They didn't think this was
a fitting replacement

for the martyred president,
but she didn't care,

because she said, "Look,
he's got a 75-man security force

that can protect my children."

[ Camera shutter clicks ]

Thomas:
She wanted to make them safe,

and Aristotle Onassis
had an island in Greece

that was like a fortress.

It was a safe place.

Tuchman: People felt like
John F. Kennedy Jr.

was their little boy,

and they watched him become
a successful and nice young man.

[ Camera shutter clicking ]

Andersen: When it came time
to choose a college,

of course, the obvious
assumption was that John

would be going to Harvard like
the rest of the Kennedy men,

but John was smart enough
to know

that the pressure
would be unbearable for him,

so he decided instead
to go to Brown University.

It's funny, you know, that he
actually took a class at Brown

on his father's administration
and got a "B"-plus.

[ Chuckles ]

Amanpour:
I met John first at University.

He was at Brown University.

I was at the University
of Rhode Island.

We were in Rhode Island,

and we knew each other
through mutual friends

and struck up
a really good friendship,

and I spent two of my years
at university

sharing a house with him.

You know, he was an incredible,
charismatic guy.

He was obviously the hot guy,
the leader on campus.

Everybody wanted a bit of him.

Probably to this day
probably nobody really believes

that John Kennedy
cleaned his own toilets.

He did.
I'm here to tell you,

all the toilets in the house,
when it was his turn.

The 40th national convention
of the Democratic Party

of the United States
will come to order.

1988 was the perceived
coming-out moment

in politics
for John Kennedy Jr.

He appears at the Democratic
National Convention in Atlanta

to introduce his Uncle Teddy.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr.

Andersen: Somebody said that,
you know, the air pressure

in the entire convention hall,
you know,went down dramatically

just from the intake of gasps
when he took the podium

because here was this
incredibly good-looking guy

that we hadn't seen that much
of while he was at Brown

and speaking, really, for the
first time in his adult voice.

Thank you very much.

Tuchman:
I distinctly remember saying,

"I'm looking forward
to seeing Michael Dukakis,

but I'm more looking forward

to seeing John F. Kennedy Jr.
make his speech.

Over a quarter century ago,

my father stood before you
to accept the nomination

for the presidency
of the United States.

It made people wonder
if this was going to be

the first of many speeches
that would propel him one day

to also running for the
president of the United States.

So many of you came into
public service because of him.

In a very real sense, because
of you, he is with us still.

And from that point on John
the man was a superstar.

Cuomo:
Sexiest man, most beautiful man,
most desired man,

and that's just what
I

JFK Jr. was photographed
all the time

coming in and out of bars
with beautiful women.

When you think of all the girls
that he went out with,

it's kind of remarkable
there aren't more memoirs

of "my night with John,"
but there weren't,

and I think that's because
he treated women well.

Andersen: He was dating people
like Madonna.

He also dated
Sarah Jessica Parker.

His real relationship,
the important relationship

began in 1988
with Daryl Hannah.

It was the longest-lasting
of his life.

It lasted six years on and off.

Woman: John Kennedy Jr.
had arrived with his girlfriend,

actress Daryl Hannah.

The couple, apparently shaken
by the onslaught,

ran into the church.

In 1989, he graduates
from law school.

Pass the bar.
[ Laughter ]

He finally had to take
the bar exam,

and he flunked it once
and then twice.

"The Hunk Flunks."

These were the headlines.
He was mortified.

No, it's absolutely true.
Yeah, I didn't pass the bar.

I'm obviously
very disappointed but...

Cuomo:
That wound up being one of
the biggest Albatrosses

around his neck.

Because John was dumb?
No.

John had a learning disability.

John would have been allowed

to have the questions
read to him,

as many do,
and he wouldn't do that

because he thought people
would think he was cheating.

[ Applause ]

Slow news day, I guess, huh?

And when he finally, you know,
squeaked by the third time,

you know, he didn't brag
about it then either.

He was excellent
at handling the press

with this kind
of easy charm.

So is it true
that you passed the bar?

Apparently it's true.

I got the official word
not long ago, so it's true.

How do you feel
about it?

I'm very pleased.

Woman: I'm sorry.
Rob, where are you?

[ Chuckles ]

You know, it tastes
pretty sweet at the moment.

Cuomo:
The biggest celebrity today
would get crushed

like a bug
under the amount of pressure

that that man dealt with
every day,

and you'd never know it
by looking at him.

John was in the tabloids a lot.
He knew to expect that.

He was a Kennedy.
But then John met Carolyn.

John didn't tell his family
until like six months later.

Terenzio:
I think Carolyn felt that
once it was out, she said,

"It wasn't
my treasure anymore.

It wasn't mine anymore."

Man: We are closely following
the search-and-rescue efforts

underway to locate
John F. Kennedy Jr.,

whose plane has gone missing.

John F. Kennedy, of course,
not alone on that airplane.

His wife,
Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy,

was with him, as well.
She, a doctor's daughter,

having been raised
in Greenwich, Connecticut.

She was voted
the ultimate beautiful person

by her classmates.

Andersen:
The fall of 1993, John walked
into the Calvin Klein store

in New York
looking for a suit

and met a young personal buyer
there named Carolyn Bessette,

this gorgeous blonde
with pale-blue eyes,

and, you know, he ended up
buying three suits

and a bunch of shirts and ties

and getting her phone number
in the process.

Soon she was
a big part of his life.

When I met Carolyn, she was
the head of PR at Calvin Klein.

She was very fashionable,
very effortlessly chic,

clever, charming,
funny, intelligent woman.

Cuomo: What made her special
was her spirit.

She did not need to be
John Kennedy's girlfriend,

and he was acutely
aware of that,

and that made him
want her even more.

Radziwill: She always thought
that the relationships that

you waited patiently for were
the only ones worth having.

Terenzio:
If she was your friend,
she was your best friend,

and she didn't come across
that way, unfortunately,

but, boy, did people miss out
who didn't get to know her.

[ Camera shutter clicks ]

Berman: Yeah, I think the public
perception of Carolyn

was the opposite
of what she was.

You know, she didn't agree
to do any interviews,

so no one heard her voice,
so you wouldn't know --

you didn't really get
a sense of who she was

except for
what she looked like.

Andersen: We saw pictures
of Carolyn, you know, frowning

or running away
from cameras.

I don't think most people
understood

the pressures
that were on her.

It was quite powerful
to see them together.

Their chemistry
was really palpable.

Cuomo: They were both
very passionate people.

That means you're going to
have conflict.

You're going to be ups.
You're going to have downs.

Andersen: There was the famous
squabble in the park

in which they are shouting
at each other

and fighting over the dog,
and it's really quite heated.

Terenzio:
It was ridiculous.

It was over and done with in,
you know, an hour,

and they were fine,
but it was all caught on video.

Bradley:
We all felt bad for them because

who hasn't had a blow-out
fight with a partner?

But you don't have it and have
the whole world know about it.

Radziwill: She called me one day
and she said,

"You have to come down
right away."

She told me that they had
gotten engaged.

She told me then
not to tell anyone

because they just wanted it
to be quiet for a while,

and I don't think John --
John didn't tell his family

until like six months later.

[ Camera shutter clicks ]

Terenzio: I think Carolyn felt
that once it was out,

it wasn't, you know,
like she said,

"It wasn't my treasure anymore.
It wasn't mine anymore."

Radziwill: They got married
in September of 1996.

We arrived on Cumberland Island,

and there was not
a single reporter,

photographer,
and not a single soul knew

except for the 40 of us
who were invited.

It was quite spectacular.

Terenzio: We all thought
that once John was married,

the paparazzi situation
would subside.

It was the complete opposite.

One of the most eligible
bachelors in the U.S.

is eligible no more.

Terenzio:
People were a little pissed off
that he got married.

He was supposed to be
the sexiest man alive

and the most eligible bachelor
for the rest of his life.

It's a sad day if it's true
for all the women out there.

It's going to end.

They'll get divorced.

I wonder, who proposed?

She was vilified for taking away
the prince of Camelot.

Andersen: John felt he had to
actually hold

kind of an impromptu
press conference

on the steps
of his condominium in SoHo

and, with her at his side,

explain to the press
this was all new to her,

that he knew how to handle it
because he had grown up with it,

but this was something the press
had to take into account and

that they really had to back off
and give her time to kind of

adjust to this new life
as Mrs. John F. Kennedy Jr.

Of course, they didn't.

As a matter of fact,
it only got worse.

Cuomo: In 1999, John was facing
some tough challenges.

Bradley: Political consultants,
money people,

it felt very logical
to them, too.

Okay, John, now is the time.

Welcome back to
"How It Really Happened."

John F. Kennedy Jr.'s
Piper Saratoga plane vanished

on a hazy Friday night
in July.

From the time
it was reported missing

early Saturday morning
throughout the entire weekend,

a monstrous coast-guard search
combed the Atlantic waters

looking for wreckage
and looking for clues.

Did the plane go down?

Could they have survived?

At this point, no one knew.

All we knew is that
we were hoping for a miracle.

King: The search continues
for the missing plane

piloted by
John F. Kennedy Jr.

and carrying his wife
and her sister.

We'll get an update
on the search.

Admiral, what specifically at
this point are you looking
for?

Larry, this evening we have
coast-guard vessels, aircraft,

and they are searching about
a 550-square-mile area,

and they are primarily
looking for debris

and continue to look
for any signs of survivors.

As time goes on,
does it get futile

from a coast-guard
standpoint?

You've dealt with
many things like this.

Not at this point,
Larry.

Amanpour:
None of his friends spoke
about him when he was alive

because there was this sort of
unspoken understanding

that, yes,
he was a public figure.

But you know what?
When it came to friendship

and people who knew him,
he expected confidentiality.

Christiane Amanpour, she's a
close friend of John F.
Kennedy.

Where did
that friendship begin?

I think I responded
to Larry King's request

to go on his program
that night

because I didn't believe
that John wouldn't be found.

I never have spoken
or felt it appropriate

to speak about John
in public before,

and I'm doing so tonight
because sometimes,

and today is one
of those cases,

a friend needs
a little bit of help.

I remember
talking about him

as if he was going to
somehow reappear.

He still is officially alive,
by the way.

If you're just joining us,

there has been no declaration
of any kind.

Absolutely, and all of us
are still praying for him

to come home safely.

I guess I wanted people to know,
you know,

what a great guy he was,
and I wanted to keep hope alive.

The last time my husband
and I saw him,

he was going to fly to Toronto
on a mission forGeorge.

-The same plane?
-Same plane.

He was going to do a mission
forGeorge,

♪♪

Ladies and gentlemen,
meetGeorge.

Terenzio:
The first idea that John
and his business partner had

was to mass produce
handmade kayaks,

and that was not
a viable business option,

so they decided
to doGeorge

-I thought you were a lawyer.
-I was.

What happened?

Well, we decided, I mean,
actually taking cue

from folks like yourself and you
around the 1992 election,

that there was
an opportunity here

to change the definition
of the political magazine.

The response to the magazine
has been enormously gratifying.

It was, I think, the biggest
launch of a magazine,

the biggest first issue
physically

that had ever happened.

I don't think I've seen as many
of you in one place

since they announced the results
of my first bar exam, so --

The idea forGeorge
started with President Clinton.

He was the first President
to do a late-night talk show,

and I think a light
went off with John,

and he thought,
"There's something here,"

and maybe they'll pay attention
to politics a bit more

if we can make it sexy,

and soGeorge
was that.

Cuomo:
He liked that he surprised
people by doing this,

he liked that
it was a challenge,

he thought that it mattered,

he thought he was ahead
of the curve,

and he was right on every basis.

I like
not being in politics.

I like
the proximity to it

that a magazine like this
affords me.

Thrilled enough to someday
want to run?

A public career,
it's a lot to bite off,

and you better
be ready for it, and,

you know, the old definition
of politics

was that you bring it
at the end of your life

when you really have
something to sort of offer.

In 1999, John was facing
some tough challenges.

His magazine was struggling.

New York's long-time senator,
Daniel Patrick Moynihan,

let it be known
that he was going to retire.

Political consultants,
money people,

it felt very logical to them.

"Okay, John, you have had
your fun atGeorge.

Now is the time."

...where President Kennedy
first made the decision

to send Americans
to the moon.

So it was spring of 1999,
and John was approached

by some friends influential
in the Democratic Party,

and they wanted him
to run for the U.S. Senate.

Another famous person surfaces
as a possibility for that seat,

and that is Hillary Clinton.

Bradley: In March 1999,
we held a press conference.

John was asked whether or not

he thought Hillary Clinton
would run for Senate.

I'm sort of betting
that she will.

I have a large bet with Rich.

I think she probably will.

Like 100 bucks or something,
like, not a big deal for him.

I think any time you have
some exciting personalities

and the prospect
of a real face-off, it's great,

because people are engaged
in the political process.

So John was well aware of what
he would sacrifice

if and when he made the choice
to go into politics.

Terenzio: He had
a few conversations about it,

maybe one or two meetings
about it, and he said,

"if Hillary Clinton is running,

I'm not going
to run against her.

I'm not going to challenge
Hillary Clinton," and he didn't.

Andersen:
Most experts I spoke with said
that there was no doubt

that he would, in a contest
with Hillary, come out on top.

Imagine how different
it would have been

if John F. Kennedy had run.

I mean, first of all,
he would have ended

Hillary Clinton's political
career, essentially,

would have conceivably go on

to make a presidential bid
of his own.

Larrabee: We are in
a search-and-rescue mode.

The full intent
of the searchers

and all of the people
behind the scenes

was to find
three people alive.

They found a pill bottle -- had
Carolyn Bessette's name on it.

We update you now on the search
for John F. Kennedy Jr.,

his wife
Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy,

and his sister-in-law,
Lauren Bessette.

Larrabee: We are in
a search-and-rescue mode.

The full intent
of the searchers

and all of the people
behind the scenes

was to find
three people alive

floating on the surface
of the water

or someplace in that area
where we could rescue them.

It was absolutely one
of those stories

where, every second,
you hoped that the next moment

you were going
to hear good news.

But then things began
to wash up on shore.

Man: I'm told the Coast Guard
is now saying debris

has been spotted off
Martha's Vineyard.

I remember that feeling of,
"I hope it's not theirs.

I hope it's not theirs."

They found one of
the flight bags

from Lauren
washed up on shore.

They actually found a wheel
that washed up on shore.

They found a pill bottle --

had Carolyn Bessette's
name on it.

And then it becomes,
did they survive?

Could -- Did they jump out?

First, of course, all of
John's friends believed

that he would
turn up somewhere,

and I think everyone
felt that way.

After all, he was known
to his friends

as the master of disaster.

He had this penchant
for taking risks

but always coming out of it
in good shape.

Amanpour: You know,
John was an adventurer.

He spent a lot of time
in the wilderness

in his various campings and
outward bounds and kayakings.

Andersen:
Just shortly before his death,
he asked officials

for permission to rappel
down the face of Mount Rushmore.

Arnot:
There is this thing called
a type-"T" personality,

which is
a thrill-seeking personality,

and it's been alleged this is
what the Kennedy family has.

There's no question that John
was fearless

and loved adventure.

Some of that adventure
was also an attempt

to escape the surly bonds,
in this case,

of the overwhelming
and oppressing public attention.

Just to find somewhere
to be alone

and to be able
to think for himself.

Flying, to me, was a logical
extension of that impulse,

right, adventure,
speed, escape.

John started taking his flying
lessons in the early 1980s.

Told a friend it was
the most fun

he ever had
with clothes on.

Andersen:
It was the only way he could
get away from everything,

get away from all
the expectations

and the burdens
and the prying eyes.

And he felt that it was the only
place he could truly be free.

The biggest thing about flying
for John

is he was out
of the public eye.

Bradley: I remember,
I took a flight with John,

a commercial flight with John.

It was a zoo.

He'd always take
a window seat

so that nobody could, you know,
tap him on the shoulder

or keep approaching him
and asking him for autographs.

Arnot:
The other part that he loved
is he loved being accepted

by another professional class
for who he was as a pilot

as opposed to who he was
because of his family,

so when he was up there,
whatever his call sign was,

it wasn't, "Hey, JFK Jr."

Andersen: Jackie had kind of
a paradoxical attitude

toward John
and his risk-taking.

She loved that spirit in him,
that kind of daredevil quality.

There was one thing that Jackie
did not want John to do,

and that was
to learn to fly.

You have to remember the track
record of the Kennedy family

when it comes to airplanes.

John Jr.'s Uncle Joe was killed,
essentially,

in a plane crash
during the war,

his Aunt Kathleen was killed
in a plane crash,

and his step-brother,
Alexander Onassis,

was killed in a plane crash.

Ethel Kennedy's parents
were killed in one plane crash,

and her brother was killed
in another plane crash.

Teddy Kennedy was
almost killed in a plane crash

that killed his campaign manager
and the pilot.

Jackie had
this recurring premonition

that her son would die
in a plane crash.

Now, I mean, she was adamant,

and so that's why he gave up
flying, out of respect for her.

Andersen:
Jackie said that if you bungle
raising your children,

nothing else you do in life
matters very much,

so she was,
in every way possible,

a hands-on mother
right up to the end.

At the time of her death,
she was absolutely convinced

that she had managed
to save her children,

that they had escaped
the Kennedy curse.

Less than two hours ago,
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis died

at her Manhattan apartment.

Man:
The world once mourned with her.
Now it mourns for her.

John Jr. and Jackie
were extremely close,

so it was very sad
when Jackie died,

and we all did imagine how hard
it was on John and his sister

because even though
they were adults,

you know,
they were orphans.

Last night at around 10:15,
my mother passed.

There's been an enormous
outpouring of good wishes

from everyone
both in New York and beyond,

and I speak for
all of our family

when I say
we're extremely grateful.

Andersen:
After her death, he felt
that he lived up to his promise

during her lifetime,
but now that she had gone,

he felt that he really
had to take to the skies.

And this time he took it up
seriously.

Andersen:
John began taking lessons

at the Vero Beach, Florida,
FlightSafety Academy.

O'Brien: The story here is,

when Kennedy finished
his private-pilot training,

he told the manager
of this flight academy,

"if I should crash, they'll try
to put the blame on you."

It was meant as a joke
but today seems sadly prophetic.

Then in 1998,
John got his pilot's license.

Well, I was reading
USA Today,

and they had a little clip
up in the corner

that John F. Kennedy had gotten
his pilot's license.

I don't know why it was,
but it was just a chill.

It was just a concern
that I can't really describe.

Navy divers zero in today
on the possible splash point

where John F. Kennedy's plane
dove into the Atlantic

off Martha's Vineyard,
Massachusetts.

And the voice said,
"This is the White House.

Stand by
for the president."

I went to our command center
on Saturday night,

and the phone rang,

and the voice said,
"This is the White House.

Stand by for the president."

I really wasn't sure I was
getting a real, true story,

and it turned out
to be President Clinton,

and he called and said,
"I want you to tell me

that you're getting all
the resources that you need,"

and that was the end of it.

Man: The search continues
in the waters

off Martha's Vineyard
with air assets

including helicopters
and a C-130 military plane.

Because of the history
of that family

and the tragedies
that have befallen it

there was a tremendous will.

You could feel it
in the coverage,

you could feel it in people,

you could feel it in the
newspapers for there

to be a happy ending here.

Larrabee:
The longer a case like this goes

that you don't find somebody
the more likely, obviously,

it is that you're not going
to find somebody alive.

We went through Sunday morning
and continued to search.

We used infrared equipment.

We used a variety of technology,

so by the end of Sunday
afternoon, there was no doubt

we were no longer
going to find a miracle.

We had now been into this thing
for almost 48 hours,

and when you start putting
all of the facts together,

when you look
at the survivability rates

of 68-degree water,
we had far exceeded that.

[ Camera shutter clicks ]

If someone had been alive,

if they had been floating
on the surface of the water,

we would have seen them with
a 99.9% chance of detection.

♪♪

I had a very sober conversation
with Senator Kennedy.

He was very somber, obviously
grieving but very focused

and knew exactly
the right questions to ask.

Terenzio: [ Voice breaking ]
The Senator's office called

and said, "We're going to
announce that we're switching

from search and rescue
to search and recovery,"

and I said,
"What does that mean?"

And they said they don't expect
to find him alive.

[ Sniffles ]

Larrabee:
We're going to shift our focus
on search and rescue

to search and recovery.

There was a deployment,
of course, of a number of ships

with what
is called side-sonar radar

to try to begin looking
for the wreckage.

And there were some criticisms
that so many resources

were being used
for one private pilot

who happened to be part
of the Kennedy family.

I did talk to Admiral Larrabee
at a time

when the operation
might normally have ceased,

and he said, "I think we have
a chance to find something else

because of the equipment
we have here

even though it's difficult."

Hall:
The president made the decision

that it was in the interest
of the nation

to recover this aircraft
as well as the victims.

There was a strong possibility

if the Navy did not
recover the wreckage

that someone privately
would have done that

for a commercial reason.

If anyone believes
that was wrong,

the coast guard is not at fault.
I am.

It was because I thought
it was the right thing to do

under the circumstances.

Larrabee: And we began
a methodical search of the area

from Monday
until Tuesday night.

Lin: Navy divers zero in today

on the possible splash point
where John F. Kennedy's plane

dove into the Atlantic

off Martha's Vineyard,
Massachusetts.

And then the news came
that it wasn't the dream.

It was the nightmare.

They had confirmed with the use
of both the side-scan sonar

and then a remote
operated vehicle

that they'd found the aircraft.

Man: Last night at about 11:40,
Admiral Larrabee told us

that they hit what
they had been looking for,

which was a large portion
of the fuselage.

Hall: It was located
six or seven miles, I believe,

off Martha's Vineyard in
approximately 120 feet of water.

Radziwill:
That was almost a relief

because there was just
so much anxiety

in those three days about
what was going to happen now.

Larrabee: What we didn't know,
which was important to us,

was, you know,
would we find the remains?

It's funny, you know.

We just learned about it
like everybody else,

learned about it on the news.
-I'm sorry.

We have to interrupt for some
breaking news right now.

Carol?

Yeah, I apologize
for that, Leon.

CNN has learned that the body
of John F. Kennedy Jr.

has been found off the point
of Martha's Vineyard.

The body was found in about
100 feet of water overnight

in a significant part
of the wreckage.

Cuomo:
They saw John F. Kennedy Jr.
still strapped in his seat.

Later that day, they also
found Carolyn Bessette's body,

her sister Lauren's body.

Cuomo:
You just have these waves of,

why does this keep
happening to this family?

How does this keep happening?

And then John of all people?

How can they be gone?

Once they found the plane,

it didn't mean that
the mystery was over.

There were a whole host
of questions

that we were all running around
trying to figure out.

Why did it happen?

Was this equipment malfunction?

Was this pilot error?

Investigators are searching
for clues to the cause

of John F. Kennedy Jr.'s
plane crash.

Man: The estimates are that
it's going to take six months

before investigators
will be able to say

what was the cause
of this crash.

Camerota:
What was the weather that night?

Did anybody
at any other airports

get any sort
of communication from him?

Woman:
When you hear about this rate
that this plane was dropping,

what does that say to you?

Well, something was clearly,
clearly wrong.

The first question is,
obviously, what happened?

Whatdid
to John F. Kennedy Jr.?

Before the plane
was even found,

the NTSB launched
an investigation.

They interviewed witnesses,
pulled John's training history.

Did his plane malfunction?

Was it pilot error?

What went on
inside that cockpit?

In part two
of "How It Really happened:

The Death
of John F. Kennedy, Jr."

we find the answers,
and it might surprise you.

Good night.