What Happened to JFK Jr.? All About The American Icon’s Tragic Death

The heartbreaking loss of John F. Kennedy Jr.—the son of the U.S. President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jackie O—continued the so-called ‘Kennedy Curse.’

To most Americans, he was known as John John—John F. Kennedy, Jr., the eldest son of America’s 35th president John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jaqueline Kennedy, made an indelible and heartshattering impression on the country at the tender age of three years old, when the toddler gave his father’s flag-draped casket a final salute as it passed him at the 1963 funeral of the assassinated POTUS. 

In the decades that followed that tragedy, the world would continue to keep a close eye on JFK Jr., who forewent the family business of political office to become a district attorney and later magazine publisher in New York City. Kennedy’s classic handsome looks, uber-famous family and high-profile romances with the likes of Sarah Jessica Parker, Daryl Hannah and, most notably, Carolyn Bessette (to whom he was married from September 1996 until their deaths in July 1999) garnered intense media scrutiny, which only intensified when John John succumbed to the so-called “Kennedy curse” and died at the age of 38. 

With a new three-part docuseries, American Prince: JFK Jr. hitting CNN on August 9 and exploring the life, legacy and loss of the late Kennedy son, here is everything you need to know about what happened to JFK Jr. 

What happened to JFK Jr.?

John F. Kennedy Jr., as well as his wife Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy and sister-in-law Lauren Bessette, tragically died in a plane crash on July 16, 1999. Kennedy, who had his pilot license, was flying the Piper Saratoga light aircraft from Fairfield, New Jersey around 8:30 in the evening, with plans to drop Lauren off at Martha’s Vineyard before the couple continued on to Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, to attend the wedding of his cousin Rory Kennedy. However, the airplane crashed into the Atlantic Ocean before the flight could reach Martha’s Vineyard, killing all aboard.

The plane was reported missing after it failed to arrive on schedule, prompting a search for the aircraft and its passengers. Navy divers recovered the bodies of John, Carolyn and Lauren from the ocean floor on July 21. The next morning, their ashes were scattered at sea from the Navy destroyer USS Briscoe off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard.

“We are filled with unspeakable grief and sadness by the loss of John and Carolyn and Lauren Bessette. 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 when he was a little boy,” the Kennedy family said in an official statement, per The New York Times. “He was a devoted husband to Carolyn, a loving brother to Caroline and an amazing uncle to her children, a close and dear friend to his cousins and a beloved nephew to my sisters and me. He was the adored son of two proud parents whom he now joins with God. We loved him deeply and his loss leaves an enormous void in all our lives.”

Related: JFK Jr.’s Famous Friends Give Glimpse Into His Private Life in New Doc

What caused JFK Jr’s crash?

The official investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) concluded that the plane crash that killed John F. Kennedy Jr., Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy and Lauren Bessette was most likely due to pilot error, specifically “Kennedy’s failure to maintain control of the airplane during a descent over water at night, which was a result of spatial disorientation.” (Spatial disorientation is “a state characterized by an erroneous sense of one’s position and motion relative to the plane of the earth’s surface,” per the Federal Aviation Administration.) Exacerbating conditions include haziness as well as the darkness of night factored into the accident, per the NTSB’s findings. 

The NTSB report noted that Kennedy, who had logged 310 hours as a pilot, had limited experience flying at night. As reported by ABC News, he had turned down an offer by one of his flying instructors to accompany him the evening of the fatal flight saying he “wanted to do it alone,” per federal investigators.

When and where did JFK Jr. die?

Based on official reports, it’s believed that John F. Kennedy Jr. died around 9:40pm the evening of July 16, 1999, about an hour after setting off on a private night flight to New England from New Jersey. The plane crash that killed the Kennedy man took place about 7.5 miles from Martha’s Vineyard on the coast of Massachusetts.

Related: New Ryan Murphy Series ‘American Love Story’ Examines John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette’s Romance

Who did John F. Kennedy Jr. leave his money to?

In his last will and testament, John F. Kennedy Jr. originally planned for his wife Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy to inherit his estate upon his death. “I give all my tangible property (as distinguished from money, securities, and the like), wherever located, other than my scrimshaw set previously owned by my father, to my wife, Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy,” the will read. 

However, because Bessette-Kennedy died alongside her famous husband in a plane crash, Kennedy’s sister Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg and her three children (Rose, Tatiana and John) became the primary beneficiaries. At the time of his death, JFK Jr.’s estate was worth up to $100 million, the New York Post reported. 

What are conspiracies about JFK Jr.’s death?

As has become custom with anything to do with the Kennedy family (more on that in a minute), conspiracies about what “really” happened to John F. Kennedy Jr. have swirled ever since his death in 1999. 

Theories have proposed the involvement of everything from the CIA to the Israeli government. Some conspiracists claim that JFK Jr. was assassinated à la his father to prevent him from going into politics; others surmise that the plane crash was actually due to an explosion, with the American government subsequently covering up the crash site in the aftermath. 

However, official word from the National Transportation Safety Board was that the fatal crash was due to spatial disorientation plaguing the pilot. 

Related: Look Back at Photos of John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette on the Anniversary of Their Death

What is the Kennedy Curse?

The so-called “Kennedy Curse” is a perceived pattern of tragedy, death and other misfortunes within the Kennedy dynasty in America. 

That includes the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert F. Kennedy in the 1960s;  the premature deaths of JFK’s infant children Arabella and Patrick; the numerous plane crashes that have claimed the lives of Kennedy family members (including John and Carolyn, JFK’s brother Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. and sister Kathleen Kennedy were killed in plane crashes in 1944 and 1948, respectively), as well as drug overdoses, skiing accidents and accidental drownings. 

Despite the series of very unfortunate events, the Kennedy clan have publicly denounced any claims of a curse.