Why U.S. Made Unusual Effort To Recover Crash Victims -- Clinton Says He Requested Extra Measures In Search

WASHINGTON - The search for the remains of John F. Kennedy Jr. in the waters off Martha's Vineyard, Mass., was more aggressive and sophisticated than efforts usually launched for average citizens.

But federal officials said that - at least in the early days when the focus was on finding survivors from Kennedy's missing plane - the mission was like thousands of others.

"Until just a couple of days ago . . . the rescue and recovery efforts that were undertaken were consistent with what would have been done in any other case," President Clinton said at a news conference yesterday. "Because the Coast Guard felt they had the capacity to succeed . . . and because of the role of the Kennedy family in our national lives . . . I thought it was appropriate to give them a few more days. And if anybody believes that was wrong, the Coast Guard is not at fault, I am."

Once officials switched gears into a salvage effort to recover the bodies of Kennedy, his wife, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, and her sister, Lauren Bessette, unusual resources were added. For example, a Navy ship recovered the bodies and the wreckage. And science ships from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scanned the sea bottom.

Though Clinton did not mention it, there was concern in the government that if it did not recover Kennedy's body and the airplane wreckage, scavengers or souvenir hunters would. The same improvements in technology used by the Coast Guard and Navy also are available to private concerns like the one that discovered the Titanic.

Given the obsession and conspiracy theories that still surround the assassination of Kennedy's father, a missing plane and missing body might have fueled rampant speculation and theories.

Through the weekend, the Coast Guard believed it was still possible that Kennedy and the two women could have survived up to 48 hours after the crash in the 68-degree waters. After that time, the chances were remote, and the Coast Guard halted its rescue efforts.

"When it becomes clear that chances for survival are greatly diminished, we don't generally have any role in the recovery," said Cmdr. Mike Lapinski, a Coast Guard spokesman in Washington.

In routine crashes over water, the government leaves the wreckage. When there is recovery, it is normally by private marine-salvage firms, paid by an insurance company, family, or salvage operators.

"A lot of planes go down and stay on the bottom of the ocean floor forever because of the expense or lack of interest," Lapinski said.

In this case, the federal government remained intensely involved in the search and recovery of Kennedy's private plane.

At its peak, the search included Coast Guard ships, boats and aircraft; two NOAA ships - the Rude and the Whiting - which use sonar to detect debris on the ocean floor; a U.S. Navy salvage ship, the Grasp, which has 20 divers; and an Air Force airborne command center.

The Grasp had never assisted in the recovery of a civilian aircraft, said Navy spokeswoman Lt. Meghan Mariman.

Few would quarrel with the special treatment accorded the only son of an assassinated president.

"The initial response was heavy but reasonably normal," said Drew Steketee, a vice president of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, which represents private pilots.

But relatives and friends of some others who have died in similar plane accidents say they have been saddened to realize that their loved ones didn't rate the same recovery efforts.

Last year, Patricia Delonnay's husband, Don Rodriguez, 57, disappeared in a small plane into Lake Michigan near Traverse City, Mich.

"When I see what they were doing to recover John Kennedy's body, and my husband's body is still at the bottom of Lake Michigan, with very little effort expended, it makes you realize that it really does make a difference who you are," said Delonnay, of Beulah, Mich.

"Fame and money and position do count, despite any protests to the opposite," she said in an interview.

Delonnay is not the only person in her position who feels that way.

Shawn Gloyer, 44, crashed into the Pacific Ocean off Oahu, Hawaii, on May 22. He had just "dropped" some parachutists and was headed back to the Pacific International Skydiving Center when his plane unaccountably dived into the ocean.

The Coast Guard suspended its search two days after the crash.

"When they stopped searching, everybody was like, `You can't do that. You've got to find him,' " said Dee Olley, an employee at the sky-diving center.

Delores Gloyer, of Seattle, was still in grief over the death of her oldest son when she heard about Kennedy's death.

"No, we did not feel that they did the proper search (for Shawn)," she said. "They said on TV that everyone gets the same treatment. Well, I don't think so. I've been sitting here and thinking, `They didn't do that for my son.' "

Two of Gloyer's friends refused to give up. They paid several thousand dollars to a private search and recovery boat. Armed with sonar, the company found Gloyer's plane within two hours. They found a sock and a shoe, but not Gloyer's body.

The federal government spends at least $370 million a year on search and rescue, most of it for Coast Guard operations. That organization alone handles more than 40,000 rescue cases annually, including between 400 and 500 plane crashes.

The other lead agency in the Kennedy case - the National Transportation Safety Board - investigated 1,907 accidents involving private planes last year, 361 of them fatal. The NTSB investigates every plane crash. Volunteers for the Civil Air Patrol - a federally funded Air Force auxiliary - fly more than 3,000 missions a year, most of them in search of downed pilots.

None of this includes the considerable expenses of state and local governments and volunteer groups.

The Federal Aviation Administration radar tapes used to determine where the Kennedy plane went down are part of an extensive system for tracking small planes that fail to show up at their destinations.

Among Coast Guard, Navy and Massachusetts rescuers, there's a sense that helping bring closure to the Kennedy family and the nation is valuable in its own right.

"I think that there is a perspective that it's the right thing to do," said Cmdr. Pat Philbin, a spokesman for Adm. James Loy, the Coast Guard commandant. "If we had an unending ability, we would do it in every case."

Material from Knight Ridder Newspapers and The Washington Post is included in this report.