What Happened to John F. Kennedy Jr.: How did He die?

John F. Kennedy Jr. was an American lawyer, journalist, and magazine publisher, who had a net worth of $100 million when he died in 1999. Technically, his will said that his assets were worth between $30 and $100 million. His estate eventually paid $15 million to his wife Carolyn Bessette’s heirs as recompense for her death.

How did John F. Kennedy Jr. die?

John F. Kennedy Jr., who obtained his pilot’s license in 1998, took off in his Piper Saratoga light aircraft on July 16, 1999, with his wife and sister-in-law in tow. The plane, which was flying from New Jersey to Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, was reported missing after failing to arrive on time.

Soon after, aircraft debris and a piece of black luggage belonging to Kennedy’s wife were retrieved from the Atlantic. The search lasted until July 21, when three bodies from the plane were discovered on the ocean floor. They were then burned, and their ashes were scattered off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard.

Meanwhile, John F. Kennedy Jr. was born on November 25, 1960, in Washington, DC to John and Jacqueline Kennedy, just two weeks after his father was elected President of the United States. His older sister is Caroline, and he had a younger brother named Patrick, who died two days after his premature delivery.

Kennedy spent the first nearly three years of his life in the White House, where he received extensive media coverage. His father was slain shortly before his third birthday in 1963. At the state funeral, a photograph of a young Kennedy saluting the flag-draped casket became famous.

Following the killing, Kennedy and his family relocated to a luxurious condominium on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. In Manhattan, he went to Saint David’s School and subsequently Collegiate School. Later, following Robert F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1968, the family relocated outside of the United States to prevent additional violence.

Jackie eventually remarried Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis, and the family moved to his private island of Skorpios. Kennedy eventually finished his elementary schooling in the United States, at Phillips Academy in Massachusetts.