- NEWSWEEK: WIFE WAS 'FRIGHTENED' TO GET IN PLANE WITH
KENNEDY
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- NEWSWEEK's Assistant Managing Editor Evan Thomas is reporting
that Carolyn Bessette Kennedy preferred to drive up and take the ferry
to Martha's Vineyard because she was frightened to get in a plane with
her husband.
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- On the Fourth of July weekend, she did fly with JFK Jr.
-- but only with a flight instructor aboard.
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- John Kennedy Jr. told friends that with his leg in a
cast, [he broke it making a landing while paragliding], he could not work
the flight controls.
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- But last Thursday, after removing the cast, a doctor
cleared him to fly, a family friend told NEWSWEEK.
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- KENNEDY WOULD HAVE RUN
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- The magazine's Jonathan Alter reports that Kennedy might
well have run for the U.S. Senate from New York in 2000 if First Lady
Hillary Clinton had not begun a campaign. "A close friend" tells
Alter that Kennedy "was very quietly exploring a campaign before
Mrs. Clinton expressed interest" and it was "only a matter of
time before he ran for something."
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- GOVERNMENT SATELLITES HELPING SEARCH KENNEDY CRASH AREA
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- NEWSWEEK magazine is set to report on Monday that three
advanced KH-11 photographic satellites in a standard polar orbit are in
position to pass over the entire search area at different times to help
seacrh the Kennedy crash area.
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- Developing...
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- DRUDGE REPORT - SATURDAY, JULY 17, 1999 22:04:58 ET XXXXX
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- KENNEDY HAD LOGGED ONLY 46 HOURS
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- An FAA source tells late editions of Sunday's BOSTON
GLOBE that John Kennedy Jr. had completed just 46 hours of flight time
since obtaining his solo license in April 1998.
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- Kennedy purchased the plane from Munir Hussain, a 39-year-old
native of Pakistan who was at the Essex County Airport on Friday night
and noticed the plane was out of its hangar.
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- He tells the GLOBE that he immediately became worried
when he was told Kennedy was solo at the controls.
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- "It was a risky situation for him to be flying without
an instructor because he was not instrument-rated to fly on his own,"
Hussain said.
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- "I immediately began to worry because the conditions
were not that good."
-
- Hussain tells the paper that he had just landed his own
plane at the airport and believed that the visibility was not ideal, around
6 miles in haze.
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- He felt flying conditions had become "too risky"
for someone without instrument certification, the GLOBE reports.
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- Kennedy frequently flew with his instructor to Martha's
Vineyard.
-
- But the instructor was not aboard the plane on Friday
night; he was on vacation in Europe.
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- NEW YORK TIMES IN KENNEDY COVER-UP?
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- **Exclusive**
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- Did the NEW YORK TIMES try to soften suspicion that John
Kennedy Jr. was acting recklessly when he solo piloted his plane over water
in haze conditions at dusk?
-
- Senior editors at the NEW YORK TIMES decided late Saturday
to spike comments that were made to a TIMES reporter by the last pilot
to see Kennedy before he took off, it has been learned.
-
- As reported in this space on Saturday, pilot Kyle Bailey
told NEW YORK TIMES reporter David Barstow: "Flying over the ocean
at night isn't the safest feeling. I know that route and at night with
fog it can become dangerous."
-
- [Bailey decided not to make his own Martha's trip on
Friday night because of the conditions.]
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- Bailey, who may have been the last man to see Kennedy
alive, added:
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- "I went home to my family and said, 'He's going
to kill himself one day in that airplane.' I mean, it was really a hazy
night.'"
-
- But just before publication the damning Bailey quotes
were quietly removed from Barstow's original copy, according to publishing
sources.
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- The Barstow story ran [minus the noted Bailey quotes]
on Page One of the paper and was the lead in Sunday editions.
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- Developing...
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- DRUDGE REPORT - SATURDAY, JULY 17, 1999 15:21:09 ET
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- PILOT LAST TO SEE KENNEDY WARNED: 'HE'S GOING TO KILL
HIMSELF ONE DAY IN THAT AIRPLANE'
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- Kyle Bailey, 25, a merchandising analyst from Cedar Grove,
N.J., and a pilot, said he saw Kennedy and his wife at about 8 p.m. last
night at the airport.
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- Bailey tells the NEW YORK TIMES that he saw Kennedy's
plane took off heading south, then turned west and then headed northwest,
toward Martha's Vineyard. Bailey, who flew to Martha's Vineyard two weeks
ago, said the ocean route can be hazardous, especially at night.
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- "Flying over the ocean at night isn't the safest
feeling. I know that route and at night with fog it can become dangerous,"
the pilot tells the paper.
-
- "I went home to my family and said, 'He's going
to kill himself one day in that airplane.' I mean, it was really a hazy
night,'" Bailey said.
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- According to publishing sources, the TIMES will report
that Bailey watched as Kennedy walked around the outside of the airplane
and then went through a routine series of preflight checks.
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- "Bailey said he noticed one unusual thing about
Kennedy's preflight check. Usually pilots take their planes down the runway
a bit to do their engine 'rev-ups,' to avoid creating too much noise in
the parking area. But he said Kennedy did his rev-ups in the parking space."
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- Bailey tells the paper: "The impression I got was
maybe there was something wrong with the plane. It just caught my attention,
like, 'Why is he doing this here?'"
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