“Every other narrative of the JFK Jr. plane crash ends where the plane went down. That’s where ours begins.” Captain Russ Webster, U.S. Coast Guard (retired).
Captain Russ Webster, a longtime FCGH member, and his wife Theresa recently published The Last Flight, The Untold Story of the Search for JFK Jr. and the Race Against the Atlantic. Their book has been # 1 in Naval History and #1 in Aviation & Nautical Biographies since publication on October 13th and details how 28 agencies came together to search for, recover, and sensitively bury the three victims at sea from the 1999 crash.
What began as a search-and-rescue case for an overdue plane off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard, MA, became the most significant multi-agency effort in American history on behalf of three private citizens involved in a small-plane crash in U.S. waters.
As publisher HarperCollins notes in its press release:
On a hazy July night in 1999, John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife Carolyn, and her sister Lauren vanished over the waters off Martha’s Vineyard—triggering a national vigil and one of the most ambitious search operations in American history. For days, the world watched and waited.
But the full story of what happened after the crash has never been told—until now.
In The Last Flight, Captain W. Russell “Russ” Webster, the Coast Guard commander who led the search, and historian Theresa Mitchell Webster, take readers inside the high-stakes, emotionally charged mission to locate the missing aircraft and recover its passengers. Drawing on firsthand accounts, official reports, and newly uncovered insights, this gripping narrative reveals the unprecedented coordination between the Coast Guard, Navy, and NOAA in a race against time, technology, and the unforgiving sea.
Beyond the headlines lies a powerful human story—of exhausted rescuers, clashing agencies, political pressure, and quiet acts of heroism. From sonar operators and Navy divers to commanders navigating impossible decisions, each played a role in what became the largest and most expensive search ever for private citizens in a small airplane.
Blending narrative history with investigative depth, The Last Flight also explores unanswered questions surrounding the crash, offering a compelling new perspective on one of America’s most haunting tragedies.
At once a pulse-pounding account and a deeply moving tribute, this is the definitive story of the mission that forever changed the Coast Guard—and a nation still captivated by the legacy of the Kennedy family.
Retired Admiral Thad W. Allen, 23rd Commandant Of The United States Coast Guard, observes,
“The Last Flight is a real-life study of leadership under duress by those who coordinated the complex response under blinding media scrutiny. Captain Webster and Theresa Mitchell Webster capture the many facets and nuances of the operations in a meticulous fashion, giving proper focus to the human factors involved and the grieving families. As a veteran of countless SAR cases and understanding personally the demands placed on leaders, I am grateful for Russ Webster’s efforts to enlighten and inform readers of the multiple dimensions of the extraordinarily complex search for the aircraft piloted by John F. Kennedy Jr. in 1999 and the recovery of the three victims.”
You can read some more of the book’s reviews here:
We will have a book review in an upcoming issue of the Foundation for Coast Guard History’s magazine, The Cutter. Join our crew and read that upcoming review by clicking the “Join Our Crew Today!” button below.
You can purchase the audiobook and EPUB versions online. The book is available online at Amazon.
The Last Flight: The Untold Story of the Search for JFK Jr. and the Race Against the Atlantic
ISBN 978-1-4002-6225-0 (audiobook)
ISBN 978-1-4002-6224-3 (ePub)
ISBN 978-1-4002-6223-6 (hardcover)
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By collaborating with the Coast Guard and National Coast Guard Museum Association, we ensure the rich history of the Coast Guard is accessible and celebrated for generations to come.
Quotes and commentary attributed to external parties represent the individual opinions of those speakers and are not necessarily those of the FCGH or the USCG.