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A pilot's story
A veteran flyer recalls her near-death experience in a private plane on the New England coast.
By Phaedra Hise
[07/20/99]

"I am Buzz Lightyear!"
Thirty years after he walked on the moon, Buzz Aldrin wants to send the rest of us.
By Jeff Greenwald
[07/20/99]

The unbearable whiteness of being
This year's hate killers are weak, lonely Caucasian men who murder those who have what they don't: A sense of belonging.
By Kathy Dobie
[07/19/99]

Why Gore would censor "South Park"
In the name of protecting kids, watch for the politically correct vice president and his friends to try to shut down the trash-talking, moon-faced midgets.
By David Horowitz
[07/19/99]

Famous for being famous
From his salute to his father through his career at George, JFK Jr.'s triumphs were mostly style over substance.
By Bill Wyman
[07/18/99]

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According to the AOPA, weather-related accidents account for almost 30 percent of all fatal, pilot-related accidents in single-engine airplanes like Kennedy's, and darkness significantly increases the likelihood of bad-weather mishaps.

Air traffic controllers and witnesses said there was haze surrounding Martha's Vineyard Friday night that diminished Kennedy's visibility. Dr. Bob Arnot, chief medical correspondent for NBC and an experienced pilot, also was flying in the area Friday night. He said visibility was limited by haze as he passed about three miles south of the Vineyard just after 9 p.m. He had to rely on instruments to land at the nearby island of Nantucket, where he vacations.

"It was just black," Arnot said. "You couldn't see Martha's Vineyard."

Several pilots said they canceled flights that night. "I was planning on going to Martha's Vineyard last night, too," said Kyle Bailey, the pilot who saw Kennedy just before he took off. "But it was so hazy. I'm very cautious, though. And I'm not crazy about flying over water at night."

Joe Orlando, a pilot who also flies out of the Essex County Airport, told the Hackensack Record he decided not to fly that night either. "Visibility was at least three miles Friday night. But I don't go unless it's five," said Orlando, who called Kennedy's New Piper "the sports utility vehicle of the air."

After studying Friday night's radar reports, investigators at the National Transportation Safety Board now believe that Kennedy's plane went into what is known as a graveyard spiral, the most lethal of airplane spins. In a graveyard spiral, a plane locks into a tight turn, accelerating rapidly, with the nose of the plane pointed straight down.

Though it is possible to recover from the spin, without the perspective of a horizon, a pilot may not even know he or she is in a graveyard spiral until it is too late. The spin can exert such pressure on the plane it can break up in midair.

In a recent study commissioned by the University of Illinois, 20 students flew into simulated "instrument weather" -- weather so bad that pilots are forced to rely on dials and meter readings to navigate. All 20 ended up in fatal spins. The average amount of time it took before their simulated crash was 178 seconds, or just under three minutes.

"Flying at night in those conditions was probably not the best judgment," flight instructor Jeff Broomall told the Canadian National Post.

The injury: "With his broken foot, he had trouble with the pedals."

Kennedy broke his foot paragliding into a tree last month, and the break kept him from flying solo all summer long -- until Friday night. Kyle Bailey, the New Jersey pilot who was the last to see Kennedy alive, noticed him limping as he got ready to make the flight Friday night.

"He had at least one crutch. I saw him limping," Bailey has told news outlets. "I told my family, 'I can't believe he's going up in this weather.'" Questions about the condition of Kennedy's foot have loomed large, because his Piper Saratoga had foot pedals. Just last Monday, Kennedy visited Toronto businessman Keith Stein, to discuss a possible investment in George magazine, and he was still in a cast and on crutches.

Next page | "I'm really not that experienced a pilot"