JFK Jr and Carolyn Bessette's REAL dying moments revealed in horrifying minute-by-minute detail: Her passenger seat terror... the graveyard spiral... violent moment of impact... and his last five words
The televised retelling of America's most romanticized romance begins at the bitter end.
Love Story, starring Sarah Pidgeon as Carolyn Bessette and Paul Anthony Kelly as John F Kennedy Jr, opens with the couple arriving at the small airfield in New Jersey to take what would prove to be their doomed final flight.
Kennedy is shown being chauffeured onto the tarmac along with his sister-in-law Lauren. His wife arrives after, and the couple have a blazing row before boarding the plane. They take off in bright sunlight, bound for Martha's Vineyard - and their untimely death.
Much of that is untrue.
Kennedy drove himself and Lauren to the airport in his white Hyundai; they took off not in daylight, but - crucially - as darkness was falling.
And the argument that producer Ryan Murphy depicts did not happen, according to the man who saw it all - the last person to see them alive, a man to whom the Daily Mail has spoken.
Kennedy had indeed spent the previous night sleeping at a hotel, amid well-documented marital troubles. But the tarmac theatrics Murphy portrayed are his own invention.
'I don't think they were having an argument. It was just a discussion,' aviation consultant Kyle Bailey told the Daily Mail. He was a 25-year-old novice pilot on that July 1999 day.
'I don't think they were having an argument. It was just a discussion,' aviation consultant Kyle Bailey told the Daily Mail
Kennedy and Bessette pictured in his plane in 1998
He saw Kennedy arrive and watched as Bessette pulled up shortly after.
'There was nothing animated,' he said. 'There was work to be done, to get the plane ready and take off. There was focus on the task.'
With so much attention on the Kennedy-Bessette relationship, sorting fact from fiction has become a national sport.
Now, with the nine-episode series drawing to its tragic end, the Daily Mail has spoken to eyewitnesses and aviation experts and analyzed the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) report into the crash, to tell the full story of what actually happened.
July 16, 1999: 1pm
Kennedy, who three months earlier had upgraded his basic Cessna 182 for a significantly more complex Piper Saratoga, had told the airport in advance that he intended to fly out that day.
His cousin Rory, daughter of Robert F Kennedy and wife Ethel, was to marry author Mark Bailey on July 17 in the Massachusetts village of Hyannis Port.
Kennedy intended to spend Friday in meetings at the Manhattan office of his magazine, George, and then fly with his wife that evening to Hyannis Port, dropping his sister-in-law off at Martha's Vineyard on the way.
Kennedy had fractured his left ankle in a paragliding accident six weeks earlier, on June 1. He had been operated on the next day and only had the cast removed the day before the flight. His doctor told him not to fly until he was able to walk comfortably without crutches - normally around ten days.
But a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) doctor later confirmed that someone with Kennedy's injury 'would not normally be expected to visit and receive approval from an FAA Medical Examiner before resuming flying activities.'
Kennedy was, therefore, at suboptimal fitness, but not medically prohibited from piloting the plane.
Staff at Essex County airport call Kennedy at 1pm and ask what time he wants his plane brought out of the hangar and made ready for him.
He tells them, according to Bailey, that he expects to arrive between 5.30 and 6pm.
Carolyn Bessette at the Hyannis Airport in 1998 with the couple's dog, Friday
Three months before the fatal flight, Kennedy (pictured) had upgraded his basic Cessna 182 for a significantly more complex Piper Saratoga
Shortly after 8pm
Bailey, whose book Witness: JFK Jr's Fatal Flight describes their final hours, told the Daily Mail that he saw Kennedy and Lauren Bessette, 34, arrive in Kennedy's noticeably low-key white car at the airport shortly after 8pm, as dusk was falling. Traffic from Manhattan, where the trio was based, was extremely heavy and everyone's arrival that day was later than planned.
Bessette, 33, arrives at the airport in a chauffeured black Lincoln town car, pulling up at around 8.15pm.
Kennedy had only piloted his new Piper for 36 hours, and had been alone in the plane, without an instructor present, for just three. Of those three hours, a mere 48 minutes were flown in darkness.
Yet when, earlier that day, an instructor volunteered to accompany Kennedy, the 38-year-old told him that 'he wanted to do it alone,' according to the NTSB report.
Bailey sees Kennedy walking with a crutch as he performed his final checks on the plane.
The two women board the six-seater aircraft and take their seats.
Kennedy climbs into the cockpit and radios Essex County control tower asking for permission to taxi and take off.
His final conversation with air traffic control is to confirm his imminent departure from runway 22: 'Right downwind departure, two two.'
They are his last known words.
The cockpit voice recorder did not survive the crash.
8.40pm
Kennedy takes off from runway 22 and radar begins detecting the airborne plane.
Given the size of his aircraft, he is neither required to file a flight plan in advance, nor maintain contact with air traffic control. There is no black box on the plane.
Radar records the plane heading northeast to the Hudson River at an altitude of 1,400 feet.
Above Westchester County airport, in upstate New York, Kennedy turns towards the east and rises to 5,500 feet, heading in the direction of Martha's Vineyard.
JFK Jr taking off in his Cessna airplane in 1998
In October 1998, Kennedy is pictured checking his plane
JFK Jr is pictured reading a map and planning a trip while at the Caldwell Airport in New Jersey
8.47pm
'Civil twilight' - the time which begins at sunset and ends when the geometric center of the sun is six degrees below the horizon - officially ends, and full nighttime conditions are in effect.
The sun set a little over half an hour ago, at 8.14pm.
Four airports along the route - Essex County, Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard and Cape Cod airport, in Hyannis - report haze or mist, with visibility between four and six miles. There is a gentle to moderate breeze of up to 16 knots, or 18-20mph.
Kennedy had completed about 50 percent of a formal instrument training course, so is flying by sight, without relying on the cockpit instruments.
The plane is equipped with GPS, which he is using, and autopilot.
It is impossible to know whether he uses autopilot at any time during the flight.
8.49pm
Kennedy is flying at 5,500ft above Westchester County airport when a small American Airlines plane, a Fokker 100 seating 100 passengers, begins its approach to the airport.
Air traffic control, unaware of Kennedy's presence, tells flight AA 1484 to descend from 6,000ft to 3,000ft.
8.53pm
The AA pilot tells air traffic control that he can see Kennedy's plane and adds: 'I understand he's not in contact with you or anybody else.'
Air traffic control confirms to the AA pilot that Kennedy is not in communications with them - he is not required to be.
The pilot of the AA plane tells air traffic control that 'we just got a traffic advisory here' – that advisory, the NTSB report says, is an automated Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) alert. It warns pilots that there is another aircraft in the vicinity that they need to be aware of.
The wreckage was recovered from the water
Kennedy intended to spend Friday in meetings at the Manhattan office of his magazine, George, and then fly with his wife that evening to Hyannis Port, dropping his sister-in-law off at Martha's Vineyard on the way
Kennedy's final conversation with air traffic control is to confirm his imminent departure from runway 22: 'Right downwind departure, two two.' (Pictured is the mangled cockpit of the Piper aircraft that was recovered after the crash)
8.54pm
Air traffic control hands over to the Westchester County control tower, providing the AA pilot with the correct radio frequency to contact them.
The AA pilot tells the control tower that he has received 'a resolution advisory' - an urgent automated warning telling him of an impending collision in 20-30 seconds time.
Despite this the AA pilot continues on its course and avoids Kennedy's plane: the pilot is not forced to make any alterations to the planned route, as the NTSB states: 'No corrective action was reported to have been taken by the controller or flight 1484.'
Both the airliner and Kennedy's Piper continue their journeys.
It is not known whether Kennedy was aware of the situation.
Some time after 9pm
Midway between the coastal Connecticut cities of Bridgeport and New Haven, Kennedy's plane leaves land behind and begins flying over the ocean.
9.33pm
Thirty-four miles west of Martha's Vineyard, Kennedy begins a steady descent from 5,500ft.
C David Heymann, a Kennedy biographer, speculates that Kennedy could have been reducing height to get below the haze and try and see lights on land.
9.37pm
Kennedy's plane has dropped to 3,000ft; it is flying at a calm, controlled pace.
9.38pm
Kennedy makes a right turn. There is some speculation among pilots, although no concrete confirmation, that the plane turned right because Kennedy reached to change his radio frequency (on the right-hand side of the cockpit), and accidentally tracked right as a result.
Thirty seconds after the turn was initiated, Kennedy levels off and begins climbing a little for the next 20 seconds.
9.39pm
Kennedy makes a left turn, seemingly trying to rectify his course.
The plane levels off and resumes flying east, towards Martha's Vineyard.
But Kennedy, inexperienced, and flying without instruments at night and in hazy conditions, is evidently confused.
Julian Alarcon, an FAA gold seal-certified flight instructor and founder of Manhattan-based Aviator NYC, explained to the Daily Mail just how disorienting the conditions are: 'Your body is telling you that you are moving in one direction, but you're actually moving in the opposite direction.
'An experienced pilot would know to trust their instruments. But Kennedy wasn't fully trained in how to read them.'
'An experienced pilot would know to trust their instruments. But Kennedy wasn't fully trained in how to read them,' said Alarcon. (Pictured: JFK Jr and a friend in his plane in 1998)
Kennedy, inexperienced, and flying without instruments at night and in hazy conditions, was evidently confused
A damaged propeller was recovered from the crash
9.39pm and 50 seconds
Kennedy makes a left turn, with the left wing at a 28-degree angle.
On board, Carolyn and Lauren Bessette will have felt the turn and a slight G force beginning to pin them to their seats, although according to Alarcon, it would not be overly alarming.
9.40pm and 7 seconds
The plane levels off.
9.40pm and 15 seconds
Kennedy, now clearly disorientated, makes a right turn.
The turn, right wing down, gets steeper and steeper: Carolyn and Lauren Bessette would now, said Alarcon, be very aware that something is going wrong, as the plane goes faster and faster.
9.40pm and 25 seconds
Radar now shows the plane's right wing at 45 degrees - Carolyn and Lauren will feel like they are about to be flung from their seats.
The engine is roaring: Kennedy has the engine at full throttle, the NTSB report shows, and the propellers working at full speed.
He is trying to get the wings level once more but, disorientated, doesn’t know which way is up or down.
And all the while the plane is plummeting downwards, in a terrifying spin known as 'a graveyard spiral.'
Alarcon said this would have been like something out of a horror film as the craft pitches down, spinning in the dark.
Little could save them now, bar the presence of an experienced pilot by Kennedy's side guiding him out of the mess.
Even if Kennedy radios Air Traffic Control, there is not time for them to help. Autopilot, if it was ever on, would have flipped off amid the violent downwards spin.
Nose down, the plane plummets into the ocean.
Even if Kennedy radios Air Traffic Control, there is not time for them to help. Autopilot, if it was ever on, would have flipped off amid the violent downwards spin. (Pictured: A Coast Guard helicopter over the ocean lifts a rescue swimmer)
Dr James Weiner, with the office of the Massachusetts Chief Medical Examiner, told the NTSB investigators: 'The pilot and passengers died from multiple injuries as a result of an airplane accident'
9.41pm
The Piper Saratoga hits the water, and the NTSB report shows its wings break on impact.
Dr James Weiner, with the office of the Massachusetts Chief Medical Examiner, told the NTSB investigators: 'The pilot and passengers died from multiple injuries as a result of an airplane accident.'
No drugs or alcohol were found in their systems.
Probable cause of the accident was described by the NTSB as: 'The pilot's failure to maintain control of the airplane during a descent over water at night, which was a result of spatial disorientation. Factors in the accident were haze, and the dark night.'
