The bodies believed to be those of John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife and her sister were loaded into two medical examiner vans late Wednesday RELATED VIDEO CNN's Jamie McIntyre looks at the rescue and salvage operation Windows Media 28K 80K The bodies of Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, Lauren Bessette, have been found off Martha's Vineyard. CNN's Carl Rochelle reports. Windows Media 28K 80K CLICK HERE FOR MORE VIDEO  KENNEDY'S DESCENT: Animation: Windows Media 28K 80K  SPECIAL: Remembering John F. Kennedy Jr.   • Profile  ALSO: Click here for more stories MESSAGE BOARDS: Kennedy tragedy INTERACTIVE As search efforts continue, a nation remembers Kennedy Kennedy Image Gallery

July 21, 1999
Web posted at: 10:01 p.m. EDT (0201 GMT)

In this story: Bodies found about 7 miles off coast Plane debris strewn over 100 yards Mass at church where Jackie worshipped Clinton approved extended Coast Guard effort RELATED STORIES, SITES

WOODS HOLE, Massachusetts (CNN) -- Senior government sources tell CNN that the cremated remains of John F. Kennedy Jr.will be spread over the sea at a ceremony at 9 a.m. ET Thursday morning. The ashes of his wife, Carolyn, and sister-in-law, Lauren Bessette, may also be scattered at sea, sources said.

However, the sources say the plan is contingent on the approval of the local medical examiner's office, which was conducting autopsies on the bodies Wednesday night.

The three bodies were located by divers Wednesday under more than 100 feet of water near the point where Kennedy's Piper Saratoga II is believed to have hit the ocean. They were brought to the surface late Wednesday and transported to a Coast Guard station at Woods Hole, Massachusetts.

They were then driven slowly away in two white vans, believed to be headed to a hospital in nearby Bourne, where autopsies are to be performed. Massachusetts law requires that autopsies be conducted on accident victims, a process that usually takes 12 to 24 hours.

The Kennedy family has announced that a memorial Mass will be held at 11 a.m. ET Friday at St. Thomas More Catholic Church in New York City. The family of the Bessette sisters also plans a memorial service at 7 p.m. ET Saturday at Christ Church, an Episcopal congregation in their hometown of Greenwich, Connecticut.

CNN has learned that the Kennedy family has requested a burial at sea of Kennedy's remains, which will be cremated, from a U.S. Navy ship. Defense Secretary William Cohen granted the request.

Bodies found about 7 miles off coast

The remains of Kennedy, 38, were discovered late Tuesday night in the aircraft's cabin by an underwater robotic device equipped with cameras, operated from a U.S. Navy recovery ship, the USS Grasp. The bodies of Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, 33, and Lauren Bessette, 34, were found in the same vicinity Wednesday.

The grim discoveries were made about seven miles off the coast of the Massachusetts resort island of Martha's Vineyard, climaxing an intense five-day search for the missing son of assassinated President John F. Kennedy and the late Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

Kennedy's uncle, Sen. Edward Kennedy, and two of the senator's sons, Rep. Patrick Kennedy and Edward Kennedy Jr., traveled to the USS Grasp on Wednesday to be briefed on the recovery operations.

The Coast Guard helicopter with the senator aboard could be seen taking off from the family compound in Hyannisport. A short time later he was seen boarding a Coast Guard boat at Menemsha Harbor.

Plane debris strewn over 100 yards

Pentagon sources who had been briefed on the recovery effort said wreckage from the plane was strewn over about 100 yards of ocean floor and was broken into a number of pieces.

Sources said the wings and engine were separated from the fuselage, and that other parts, including the tail and struts, were strewn over a wide area.

Kennedy's body was found in the cabin portion of the plane, sources said.

The plane -- with Kennedy, a licensed pilot, at the helm -- disappeared from radar about 9:40 p.m. ET Friday while en route from Fairfield, New Jersey, to Martha's Vineyard. The Kennedy couple was planning to continue to Hyannisport for a family wedding after dropping Lauren Bessette off on the island.

Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board say the plane apparently went into a steep -- and so far unexplained -- dive, plunging at a rate of more than 5,000 feet per minute.

Mass at church where Jackie worshipped

The private Mass "to celebrate the lives of Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and John F. Kennedy Jr." will take place at St. Thomas More, a 500-seat church on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, according to a statement from Sen. Kennedy's office.

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis worshipped at the church, and several family events have been held there in the past.

President Bill Clinton and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton plan to attend the service.

A Pentagon official told CNN that the Navy is prepared to make available to the Kennedy family the destroyer USS Briscoe, which is currently on a training exercise off the coast of Cape Cod, for the burial at sea.

Clinton approved extended Coast Guard effort

Clinton said Wednesday that he gave his approval to extend efforts for the search beyond the point at which similar searches usually end.

"Because the Coast Guard felt that they had the capacity to succeed in this if they had a couple ... more days and because of the role of the Kennedy family in our national life and because of the enormous losses they have sustained in our lifetimes, I thought that it was appropriate to give them a few more days," Clinton said.

Correspondents Jamie McIntyre,Carl Rochelle, Martin Savidge, Mike Boettcher, Bob Franken, John King and Frank Buckley contributed to this report.

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