On Mon, 6 Oct 2008 06:05:22 -0700 (PDT), a wrote:

It doesn't matter if it was IMC for JFK Jr. On a moonless night over
water -- toss in a high overcast -- there's nothing but black to be
seen out of the window. In terms of flying, it's the same as being
inside a cloud. It could be 10,000 feet and 50 miles vis, without a
doubt legal vfr, but if you're not flying the gauges you're gonna die.
He most likely had marginal VFR, but was in conditions not too
different from what I had described above -- flying by outside
reference could have been close to impossible, even if VFR. John John
was a known risk taker, his family would rarely fly with him because
of that (ref -- the book "The Day John Died"). If you accept what his
friends said about him, he really was an accident looking for a place
to happen. The "Master of Disaster" was recovering from an ankle
injury he got earlier from an unltra light accident on -- ready for
this? -- the same Martha's Vineyard he was flying to.

Add in to his multi tasking that he was under major stress with the
magazine George, did not sleep at home the night before because of
arguments with his wife, and you have, in my opinion, a guy who
shouldn't have been trusted riding a two wheel bike, let alone a
tricycle with wings.

IMO, it was a collection of minor to major mistakes matched with a
resistant to death personality. Which being a Kennedy is either a
defense mechanism or utter stupidity...or both.