Released today, “The Last Flight : The Untold Story of the Search For JFK JR and the Race Against the Atlantic” revisits the true life tale of a small aircraft lost at sea. This story is so compelling you’ll almost taste the bitter coffee rescuers drank as they searched night and day for the son of Camelot, his wife Carolyn and her sister Lauren Bessette.

 “Last Flight” chronicles the real-time rescue mission of their July 16th, 1999 fated flight.  The narrative, written by Coast Guard Incident Commander, Captain Russ Webster and his wife Theresa Mitchell Webster a journalist and maritime historian, engages readers in both the no-nonsense routines of rescue missions and senseless loss of three vibrant souls. The authors say ‘this is the first comprehensive historical record of what became the largest and most expensive search ever conducted for private citizens in a small airplane in American waters.’

In some ways, the book reads as a professional manual. It’s an impressive mapping of not only the vast Atlantic ocean crash-site but an organizational chart of governmental agencies trained to manage the unmanageable. Readers will feel the lightning fast deployment of assets, hick-ups in inter-departmental coordination of personnel and the gravitas of intellectual depth. In this account, all-hands-on-deck combined to solve waves of problems political might couldn’t right.  While the reader turns pages you’ll sense the ominous tide rising.

At first, the rescue team hoped with the Nation for a miraculous outcome, but in-time floating wreckage and a random fisherman’s recollection of a loud crashing sound ‘somewhere-out-there’ foreshadowed the ultimately grim reality. Compassion splashes across the pages with details of the July 21,1999 recovery of three bodies from the Atlantic, just 8 miles off their Martha’s Vineyard destination.

The passengers were famous, not for any particular accomplishment but for all they represented in American history and contemporary culture. It’s presumed JFK Jr, a licensed pilot who lacked credentials to fly at night, became disoriented in the darkness and crashed. This book prompts questions that can’t be answered, was the cause of the crash arrogance, negligence or simply poor judgment?

Unlike most recollections of this legendary story, “Last Flight” begins with full awareness of loss. It’s a difficult but fascinating read that underscores the vigilance and bravery of members of the Coast Guard, Navy and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Atlantic

A perfect gift for Kennedy devotees, maritime or aviation buffs, or anyone who understands the ocean is both a beauty and a beast.