John F. Kennedy Jr., son of JFK and Jackie Onassis, disappeared off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard on July 16th, 1999. He had crashed his private plane, killing his wife, his sister-in-law and himself.

President Bill Clinton called it “a very sad time,” and for good reason — it was déjà vu for America. The Kennedy legacy was playing out once more, not with gunshots in Dallas or Los Angeles, but in slow, quiet dread over a radar blip gone missing. Search crews eventually found the wreckage, and the official cause was clear — JFK Jr. had lost spatial awareness while flying at night over water.

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly ask why he decided to take to the skies that evening, despite the changing weather conditions and his lack of instrument training; recall how, from being a toddler who saluted his father’s coffin on his third birthday, he grew up in the public eye; and consider the validity of the so-called “Kennedy Curse” that hangs over his otherwise privileged family… 

Further Reading:

• ‘Opinion | Tragedy Revisits the Kennedys’ (The New York Times, 1999): https://www.nytimes.com/1999/07/19/opinion/tragedy-revisits-the-kennedys.html

• ‘Why did JFK Jr.'s plane crash? What we know about the 1999 tragedy’ (Cape Cod Times, 2024):

https://eu.capecodtimes.com/story/news/2024/07/17/jfk-jr-plane-crash-kennedy-carolyn-bessette-lauren-died-marthas-vineyard/74428324007/

• ‘Remembering JFK Jr. 25 years after deadly plane crash’ (TODAY, 2024): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoBIz9Rykj8

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The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.

Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart

Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2025.

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