
WorldBusiness Insider11d ago JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette died in a plane crash 27 years ago. It fueled rumors of a 'Kennedy curse.'
John F. Kennedy Jr. and his wife, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, attended the Municipal Art Society Gala in 1998.
Richard Corkery/NY Daily News Archive/Getty Images
John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife, and her sister died in a 1999 plane crash near Martha's Vineyard.
Rumors of a "Kennedy curse" were fueled by multiple family tragedies over the decades.
JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette's relationship is now the topic of an FX series, "Love Story."
The Kennedy family has been subjected to many tragedies over the years, including two assassinations and a plane crash that took the lives of John F. Kennedy Jr. and two other passengers.
Nearly 27 years ago, on July 16, 1999, John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, and her older sister Lauren Bessette were killed in a plane crash off the coast of Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts. There were no survivors from the accident.
The relationship between John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy is now the topic of an FX series executive-produced by Ryan Murphy, "Love Story."
Their deaths became a major news story and perpetuated rumors of a "Kennedy curse."
JFK Jr.'s father, former President John F. Kennedy, was assassinated in 1963. His uncle, Robert "Bobby" Kennedy, was assassinated five years later in 1968. And two years before JFK Jr.'s death, his cousin Michael Kennedy also died after hitting a tree while skiing in Aspen, Colorado.
Here's what we know about the plane crash that killed John F. Kennedy Jr. and two others.
John F. Kennedy Jr. frequently made headlines throughout the 1990s.
John F. Kennedy, Jr. at the Democratic National Convention in 1988.
Bettmann/Getty Images
As the son of a president and a member of one of America's most prominent political dynasties, John F. Kennedy Jr. was destined for the spotlight.
JFK Jr. was born on November 25, 1960, just two weeks after his father was elected president. His father was assassinated on November 22, 1963, just three days shy of JFK Jr.'s third birthday.
JFK Jr., affectionately nicknamed "John-John" by the public, attended the funeral on his birthday and was famously photographed saluting his father's casket.
Throughout much of his adolescence and adulthood, he mostly remained out of the public eye.
However, his public image began to change after he introduced his uncle, Ted Kennedy, at the Democratic National Convention in 1988.
In September 1988, People named Kennedy, who was then a 27-year-old third-year law student at NYU, the "Sexiest Man Alive."
JFK Jr. also dated a few celebrities throughout the 1990s, including "Sex and the City" star Sarah Jessica Parker, Cindy Crawford, and Daryl Hannah.
John F. Kennedy Jr. began dating Carolyn Bessette, a publicist for Calvin Klein, in 1994.
John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy in 1995.
Rose Hartman/Getty Images
They met in the fitting room at Calvin Klein, where Bessette helped JFK Jr. pick out wardrobe items, Elizabeth Beller wrote in "Once Upon a Time: The Captivating Life of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy," cited by People.
Tall, sophisticated, and beautiful, JFK Jr.'s new girlfriend captivated the public.
After two years of dating, the pair married in an intimate ceremony on Cumberland Island, Georgia, People reported.
While their wedding ceremony was private, their relationship was anything but, thanks to the prying eyes of the paparazzi.
Evan Agostini/Getty Images; NY Daily News Archive/Getty Images
The media attention may have even inspired Kennedy to get his pilot's license in 1998.
"That was some of the happiest times he ever had. Floating around with the buzzards in his Buckeye [plane]. It was the freedom," his close friend Robbie Littell told "JFK Jr: An Intimate Oral Biography" author RoseMarie Terenzio, according to People.
"He said, 'It's the only place I can go where no one is bothering me. I have complete silence, and no one can get to me except the air traffic controllers.' Maybe that gives you insight into what he was really dealing with on the ground," his college friend Gary Ginsberg said, People reported.
John F. Kennedy Jr. was traveling to Martha's Vineyard with his wife and her older sister when their plane was reported missing.
The hangar where John Kennedy Jr. kept his Piper Saratoga airplane.
Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection/Getty Images
The Washington Post reported that Kennedy departed Essex County Airport near Fairfield, New Jersey, at around 8:38 p.m. on Friday, July 16, 1999. The sun was already beginning to set and "hazy conditions," which had been reported earlier in the evening, were getting worse, People reported.
Kennedy planned to drop his sister-in-law Lauren Bessette on Martha's Vineyard before traveling to his family's compound in Hyannis Port with Carolyn. The couple was due to attend his cousin Rory Kennedy's wedding the following day, according to People.
However, the plane never landed in Martha's Vineyard.
An unidentified driver reported the plane had failed to arrive at Martha's Vineyard Airport as expected, according to the Post, citing an NBC report. It kicked off a search for the missing aircraft in the early hours of July 17.
The Kennedy family notified the Cape Cod Coast Guard that the couple had not made it back to Hyannis.
A Coast Guard helicopter searching for debris from John Kennedy Jr.'s plane.
Daniel Goodrich/Newsday RM/Getty Images
The Washington Post reported that the Coast Guard then began investigating whether the plane had landed at another airport.
By 4 a.m., the Coast Guard began searching for the missing plane, and by 7:30 a.m., the Air Force and Coast Guard had launched 20 aircraft vehicles and two boats to search the area between Long Island and Martha's Vineyard, according to the Post's timeline.
On Sunday afternoon, what was presumed to be debris from the plane was found on Philbin Beach on Martha's Vineyard. Among the debris was a headrest that was later concluded to be from the missing aircraft and a black suitcase that contained Lauren Bessette's business card.
Rory Kennedy's wedding, scheduled for 6 p.m. that night, was put on hold as the family awaited more news.
The Washington Post reported that after more debris was found in the days to follow, the search-and-rescue mission became a search-and-recovery mission.
All three of the plane's passengers were now presumed dead. John F. Kennedy Jr. was 38 years old. Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy was 33, and her sister Lauren Bessette was 34.
Five days after the crash, the bodies of John F. Kennedy Jr., Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, and Lauren Bessette were recovered.
Massachusetts State Police divers left Menemsha on Martha's Vineyard on July 19, 1999.
DON EMMERT/AFP/Getty Images
The debris field was identified off the coast of Martha's Vineyard, relatively near the estate once owned by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Kennedy's mother, The New York Times reported. (Kennedy Onassis died in 1994.)
The bodies of John F. Kennedy Jr., Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, and Lauren Bessette were discovered by Navy divers on July 22, 1999, after an extensive search approved by President Bill Clinton.
The bodies of the crash victims, which were ''near and under'' the main body of the aircraft, were still strapped in, according to the Times.
Details began to emerge about what led to the crash.
A television technician holds up the official handout map of the search and rescue area off Martha's Vineyard.
JOHN MOTTERN/AFP/Getty Images
Kennedy had only flown about 72 hours without a flight instructor, and had only about 300 total hours of flying experience, The New York Times reported in July 2000. He had reportedly rejected an offer to have a flight instructor accompany the group on their journey.
As a newly trained pilot, Kennedy was not licensed to fly and navigate the air using flying instruments. Instead, he had only trained to fly using sight alone, which would have been extremely difficult in dark or hazy conditions such as those on the night of July 16.
Warren Morningstar, a spokesman for the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, told the Times that "flying at night over featureless terrain or water, and particularly in haze or in overcast, is a prime setup for spatial disorientation."
About an hour into the trip, the plane's flight path became irregular as it began its descent into Martha's Vineyard, indicating that the pilot may have become disoriented by the darkness of the sky and the water, the National Transportation Safety Board concluded.
"His flight path into the water is consistent with what is known as a graveyard spiral," Jeff Guzzetti, an NTSB investigator in the accident, told Terenzio, according to People. "The airplane makes a spiral nose down … kind of like going down a drain. The plane went into one final turn and it stayed in that turn pretty much all the way down to the ocean."
The aircraft went down in the water about 7 miles from its intended destination of Martha's Vineyard.
Mourners pay respects at the floral shrine outside of the building where John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn lived in 1999.
Allan Tannenbaum/Getty Images
The Washington Post reported that the plane did not send out a distress call. Instead, it made its final descent and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean in under 30 seconds.
Kennedy, Kennedy-Bessette, and Bessette's bodies were cremated and buried at sea off the coast of Martha's Vineyard on July 22, 1999.
"We are filled with unspeakable grief and sadness by the loss of John and Carolyn and Lauren Bessette," Ted Kennedy said in a statement on behalf of the Kennedy family. "John was a shining light in all our lives and in the lives of the nation and the world that first came to know him as a little boy."
As the country mourned the loss, rumors of a "Kennedy curse" were reignited.
John F. Kennedy, Jr. and Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy attended the White House Correspondents dinner in 1999.
Tyler Mallory/Liaison/Getty Images
The extensive search captured the nation's attention, as did the tragedy of the three young passengers' deaths. Yet another tragic accident for the Kennedy family, the plane crash only added to rumors of a Kennedy family curse.
"I've looked high and low and cannot find another family since the ancient Greek House of Atreus that has suffered more calamities and misfortunes than the Kennedys," Edward Klein, the author of "The Kennedy Curse: Why Tragedy Has Haunted America's First Family for 150 Years," said, according to The Washington Post.
While there are many logical reasons for the fateful plane crash, it's nevertheless poignant that the Kennedy family, one of the wealthiest and most influential political families in the world, has suffered so much tragedy throughout the last 100 years.
"The humanity of their story is what keeps us engaged," Kennedy family biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli told NBC News in 2019.
"We peer behind the scenes of their wealthy lifestyle, and we see, for all the advantages they have, tragedy can still happen."
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Billionaire investor Vinod Khosla wants to 'rethink' capitalism for the AI era — and suggests scrapping taxes for 125 million people
Vinod Khosla says stock prices aren't the way to evaluate AI bubbles.
Mert Alper Dervis/Anadolu via Getty Images
Vinod Khosla says the rise of AI might warrant steeper taxes on capital and none for most workers.
The billionaire VC wrote on X that AI displacing workers could shrink the labor part of the economy.
Khosla wrote that some popular tax breaks were "special interest goodies" and not "true capitalism."
If artificial intelligence eliminates millions of jobs, it might make sense to scrap income taxes for the vast majority of Americans and target capital instead, Vinod Khosla says.
"AI will transform economies and need a rethink of capitalism & equity," the billionaire venture capitalist wrote in an X post on Monday. "Labor portion of economy (vs capital) will decline sharply. Should we eliminate preferential treatment of capital gains tax and equalize to ordinary income?"
Khosla — who cofounded Sun Microsystems and made the first VC investment in OpenAI — was making the point that AI replacing labor on a grand scale might warrant greater taxes on assets such as stocks and real estate.
The veteran financier, who founded Khosla Ventures after leaving Kleiner Perkins, attached a video highlighting some of the jobs that could be taken by AI, from accountants and therapists to truck drivers and chip designers.
AI will transform economies and need a rethink of capitalism & equity. Labor portion of economy (vs capital) will decline sharply. Should we eliminate preferential treatment of capital gains tax and equalize to ordinary income? 40% of capital gains taxes are paid by those with… pic.twitter.com/7oSA9xj5Ko
— Vinod Khosla (@vkhosla) February 16, 2026
Khosla said in a follow-up post that ramping up taxes on capital would generate so much revenue that the government could scrap taxes for most of the roughly 150 million US taxpayers.
"Could easily eliminate bottom 125 million taxpayers from the tax rolls and be revenue neutral at the same time with a capital gains tax equal to ordinary income and a few other tweaks," he wrote.
He added that tax breaks such as carrying over tax losses and tax-free borrowing against unrealized gains — which he called a "true abuse!" — are "special interest goodies inserted by lobbyists and campaign contributions, not true capitalism."
Khosla didn't address common critiques of higher taxes, including that they can discourage entrepreneurship and investment, that collecting them can be tricky, and that wealthy people may leave the country to avoid them.
Khosla has previously underscored that the advent of AI may require sweeping policy changes. He estimated in late 2024 that in 25 years' time, AI could be doing 80% of the work in 80% of all jobs, and universal basic income might be needed to compensate for job destruction.
"As AI reduces the need for human labor, UBI could become crucial, with governments playing a key role in regulating AI's impact and ensuring equitable wealth distribution," he wrote on his firm's website.
Khosla isn't alone in predicting AI will change the fabric of society. Elon Musk suggested late last year that work could become "optional" and money might become "irrelevant" if advances in AI and robotics generate abundant resources for all.
Moreover, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO recently said that retirement savings may not be needed in 10 or 20 years, as everyone might have "whatever stuff they want."
However, skeptics such as Michael Burry of "The Big Short" fame have cautioned the AI boom is a speculative bubble, tech companies are overinvesting in microchips and data centers that will quickly become obsolete, and true AI is further away than many think.
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