AQUINNAH, Mass. -- A vast aerial search of the sea off Martha's Vineyard resumed Sunday after Coast Guard cutters overnight found no signs of John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife and her sister.
Their plane was reported missing off the shores of the resort island early Saturday.A Coast Guard Falcon jet took off about 6 a.m. to begin an intensive daytime search that involved several government agencies and spanned 1,200 square miles.
Crews also combed beaches on all-terrain vehicles looking for any debris that may have washed ashore, state police Lt. Richard Kelley said.
By midday, the search Sunday had yielded pieces of foam insulation spread over about a mile of shoreline and part of an airplane headrest, police Capt. Robert Bird said.
Coast Guard Rear Adm. Richard Larrabee said searchers heard a brief transmission Sunday from an Emergency Locator Transmitter in the vicinity of the plane's debris field.
"I would caution you that this was only one transmission," he said.
A daylong search Saturday yielded plane fragments, a prescription bottle belonging to Kennedy's wife and a piece of baggage belonging to his sister-in-law, but no signs of life.
At Philbin Beach in Aquinnah -- the portion of the Vineyard popularly known as Gay Head, and near where Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis owned a 365-acre estate -- a wheel, a headrest and part of a plane support known as a strut had washed up, said Coast Guard Lt. Craig Jaramillo. A black bag with Kennedy's sister-in-law Lauren Bessette's name on it also was found.
Coast Guard cutters using bright lights and a sonar-equipped ship searched over- night, but three helicopters and an Air National Guard C-130 airplane were grounded early Sunday because of low haze.
Larrabee said the search with sonar was hampered by "the very rocky bottom that complicates the process."
James Hall, head of the National Transportation Safety Board, said investigators hoped to reach a final conclusion on what caused the apparent accident within six to nine months.
"We are at the very beginning stages of what will be a very painstaking investigation," Hall said.
The 38-year-old Kennedy, his wife, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, 33, and Lauren Bessette departed Friday night from Fairfield, N.J., to Cape Cod for the wedding of his cousin Rory, daughter of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, at Hyannis Port. The wedding was postponed -- replaced with prayers for the missing.
A family friend said Lauren Bessette was to be dropped off at the Vineyard before Kennedy and his wife continued on to Hyannis Port. Another friend reported the plane missing to the Coast Guard about 2:15 a.m. Saturday.
Family members gathered for prayers again Sunday morning, at Mass celebrated in the Hyannis Port compound. Kennedy's sister, Caroline, was reportedly staying at a family property on Long Island, waiting for news from the search.
Government sources familiar with the investigation said she and her family had returned from a rafting trip out West and would travel to Massachusetts when necessary.
Kennedy relatives were spotted Sunday walking the beach in front of their property and Ethel Kennedy and other family members were seen setting out on a sailboat.
The FAA reported the last radar contact with the plane was at 9:39 p.m. Friday during its final approach to the airport on the island off Cape Cod. Radar records showed the plane's last known location was about 17 miles southwest of the Vineyard.
John Fish, a sonar expert with Cape Cod-based American Underwater Search and Survey, said water depths range from 84 to 120 feet in the area.
"The seabed is flat, sugar sand, fine sand. There are no canyons that would hide wreckage," Fish said. However, he said shadows from boulders and debris from about 20 shipwrecks in the area could hinder the search.
Kennedy recently acquired the single-engine, six-seat Piper Saratoga II HP -- a plane known in the aviation industry as a high-performance airplane with a good safety record.
Nonetheless, flying it at night, in a hazy sky and under visual flight rules -- the reported conditions Friday night -- is challenging. Kennedy had obtained his pilot's license last year, but he was not licensed to fly on instruments.
The plane's disappearance came one day before the 30th anniversary of the Chappaquiddick incident, in which Sen. Edward Kennedy's car went off a bridge, killing passenger Mary Jo Kopechne on a tiny island adjacent to Martha's Vineyard.
Kennedy has lived entirely in the public eye, from his birth shortly after his father's election as the nation's 35th president, to his poignant salute on the day of his namesake's funeral, to his romances with Daryl Hannah and Madonna.
A former assistant district attorney in Manhattan, he launched his own political magazine, George, in 1995.
He was wed Sept. 21, 1996, to Bessette, a former publicist for fashion designer Calvin Klein.
Lauren Bessette, who is 18 months older than Carolyn, works as an investment banker in New York City. She has a twin sister, Lisa Ann.
Around the country, expressions of sympathy poured in.
In a brief statement in Washington, President Clinton said that for "for more than 40 years now the Kennedy family has inspired Americans to public service, strengthened our faith in the future and moved our nation forward."
"Through it all, they have suffered much and given more," the president said.
Outside a church in Los Angeles, Vice President Al Gore said: "Like all Americans, my prayers are with the Kennedy family. Above all, we are reminded of the sacrifices of the Kennedy family, and how precious and fragile life is."
Nancy Reagan telephoned Sen. Edward Kennedy to express prayers and hope from her family, a Reagan family spokesman said.
In the Tribeca neighborhood of New York City, Jose Torres put up a poster Sunday on the building where Kennedy lives with his wife. The poster read: "Has anyone seen my old friend John-John?"
"To me, he was Mr. New York," said Torres, 42. "Everybody loved him, and he was a really nice guy. He said hello to me once when I met him riding my bike."
In Greenwich, Conn., about 200 friends and neighbors of the Bessettes packed St. Michael's Church, offering prayers, condolences and memories.
Robert Cardini, one of Bessette's former classmates, left two bouquets of flowers at the high school they attended, which sits on the church grounds.
"We wanted to let her know we're thinking about her," he said.