On July 16, 1999, at 9:41 p.m., a small plane piloted by John F. Kennedy Jr., with his wife, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, and her sister, Lauren Bessette, aboard, plummeted into the Atlantic seven and a quarter mile southwest of Martha’s Vineyard. The National Transportation Safety Board would later conclude that spatial disorientation by Kennedy was the cause of the tragedy. The moment the plane was reported missing overnight on Friday, the Coast Guard launched the largest search for private citizens aboard a small plane in U.S. waters in American history in partnership with the FAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and later, the U.S. Navy.  The search and rescue mission for, and respectful recovery of, the deceased and the plane’s wreckage, proved to be one of the most complex, unprecedented, and closely watched multi-agency operations along with numerous local and state agencies like the Massachusetts Environmental Police and the Massachusetts State Police.  

In The Last Flight, retired Coast Guard Captain W. Russell “Russ” Webster—the officer who coordinated the search mission and historian Theresa Mitchell Webster, provide the first-ever accounting of the intense operation that captivated the world. Drawing on first-hand accounts, official government records and updated research, the book offers a fresh and compelling narrative of leadership, military professionalism, and human dedication during a sorrowful mission which resulted in the respectful burials-at-sea of the deceased.