On the evening of July 16, 1999, John F. Kennedy Jr., son of US president John F. Kennedy, died when the light aircraft he was flying crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. Kennedy's wife, Carolyn Bessette, and sister-in-law, Lauren Bessette, were also on board and died. The single-engine Piper Saratoga had departed from New Jersey's Essex County Airport, and its intended route was along the coastline of Connecticut and across Rhode Island Sound to Martha's Vineyard Airport.