Little Evidence in Kennedy Wreckage

The wreckage of John F. Kennedy Jr.’s single-engine aircraft shows no evidence so far that it experienced a fire, in-flight breakup or engine problems before it crashed into the Atlantic Ocean and killed Kennedy and two others July 16, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a statement issued Friday.

The board also said the weather forecast that Kennedy got from the Internet about two hours before his flight began offered no warning of the haze that hung over his route from New Jersey to Martha’s Vineyard. The forecast called for good visual flying conditions with visibility of six to eight miles.

Kennedy’s Piper Saratoga was on approach to Martha’s Vineyard, an island off Massachusetts, when it made a series of turns and then fell from the sky about 9:41 p.m. EDT, killing Kennedy, his wife, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, 33, and her sister Lauren Bessette, 34.

The board did not address whether Kennedy, 38, might have become disoriented while flying over the ocean on a nearly moonless night in thick haze. Normally in crash investigations, the board first eliminates mechanical or structural causes before considering pilot error.

The board said that Kennedy had more than 300 hours of flying time, somewhat more than initially reported.

However, pilots said that 300 hours would have left Kennedy at an experience level at which pilots sometimes become overconfident and are not sufficiently seasoned to recognize dangerous situations.