Posted on 02/06/2007 5:02:17 PM PST by Jet Jaguar
BOSTON (AP) -- Almost eight years after John F. Kennedy Jr. died in a plane crash off the coast of Martha's Vineyard, federal officials released a brief audio clip Tuesday of a conversation between a concerned airport intern and a Federal Aviation Administration dispatcher related to the fatal flight.
A transcript of the conversation between Adam Budd, a 21-year-old college student employed at the Martha's Vineyard Airport, and the call center at the FAA's Automated Flight Service Station in Bridgeport, Conn., already was made public and widely reported four days after the July 16, 1999, crash.
The audio released on Tuesday by the Department of Transportation in Washington was the result of a federal Freedom of Information Act request filed by broadcasters after the crash. A portion of it was aired on Boston's WFXT-TV.
Budd, who generally performed clerical tasks, is recorded in a hushed tone, his voice slightly quaking as he asks if the FAA can track Kennedy's plane.
"Well, who are you?" an unidentified FAA dispatcher asked.
"I'm with airport operations," Budd said, failing to identify which airport until asked by the dispatcher.
He then said: "Actually, Kennedy Jr.'s on board. He's uh, they want to know, uh, where he is."
When the operator told him he wouldn't give the information over the phone, Budd backed off.
"OK, well, if it's too much trouble, it's ... I'll just have 'em wait. ... It's not a big deal," he said, according to the 1999 transcript.
Budd's call came in at 10:05 p.m., four hours before a search and rescue mission was scrambled after a family friend made a more forceful call to the Coast Guard.
Kennedy, the 38-year-old son and namesake of America's 35th president, was flying with his wife, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, 33, and his sister-in-law, Lauren Bessette, 34, when his six-seat, single-engine Piper Saratoga crashed seven miles south of his Martha's Vineyard home. All three were killed.
A report of the National Transportation Safety Board blamed pilot error for the crash, saying Kennedy, who had been flying for 15 months, was not skilled enough for low-visibility nighttime flying and became disoriented in the hazy sky.
I still think Hillary had something to do with it
;0)
She may not have been involved in this but you can be gosh darn sure that she didn't shed a single tear when she heard the news.
Kennedy + female/s + moving vehicle = recipe for disaster
He'd be 45 now and probably looking PDP (pretty dang presidential) to all those nostalgic boomers.
There is no denying he was choice peice media beefcake. I always wondered if he would have run if he had lived and if he would have become a hawk or a dove after 9-11.
ah. Money and power.
The family...he was headed for a Kennedy wedding.
Should have spent a little more time under the hood.
oh, that's right, they were headed for a wedding. Thanks, bannie.
Very tragic. I remember I was at the airport that day, going to meet my biological dad for the first time since I was 2 (and meet my 1/2 sister for the first time ever). I remember watching the news on the TV at the airport.
1. bad day for flying.
2. no instrument rating.
3.new plane with too much power for Kennedy.
4. They flew into the ocean.
5. No autopsy--Drugs,alcohol?? We will never know
6 They burned his corpse and spread his ashes before we could find out, not that we would have ever seen the truth, The Kennedy's would have seen to that.
Based on teddy's lifetime influence he'd probably end up another communist like teddy.
It was a good day for you. :-)
He failed the New York Bar exam twice before passing on the third try, with tutoring help. Rembember the headline, "The Hunk Flunks!"
You can bet somebody in the family called out there raising holy hell wanting to know where he was.
I always felt he received subpar pilot training or was just plain stupid. The airplane he was flying almost certainly had a decent autopilot. Given the poor visual conditions, he could have made his entire descent on autopilot without incident. You don't need an instrument license to turn on the autopilot.
Call it CFIO - Controlled flight into the ocean. Or a graveyard spin.
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