FALMOUTH, Mass. -- In a farewell at sea, a Navy destroyer carried family members Thursday to a ceremony to scatter the ashes of John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife and sister-in-law at a site not far from where they died.
A group of about 15 family members carried the cremated remains of Kennedy, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and Lauren Bessette onto the USS Briscoe. Their ashes were to be scattered off Martha's Vineyard about three miles from where the bodies were recovered Wednesday.Dressed in dark clothing, family members boarded the Coast Guard cutter Sanibel, which took them to the Briscoe, shortly before 9 a.m. at Woods Hole port. The mourners included Kennedy's sister, Caroline Kennedy, his uncle, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, and cousins Maria Shriver and William Kennedy Smith.
The Bessette sisters' relatives also were attending, including their mother, Ann Freeman; stepfather, Dr. Richard Freeman; and Lauren Bessette's twin sister, Lisa Ann Bessette, a family source said.
Three folded American flags and three wreaths with red, yellow and white flowers had been placed on the ship.
Defense Secretary William Cohen approved a request by the senator and the Bessette and Freeman families for Navy assistance for the ceremony, the Pentagon said Thursday. Two Navy chaplains and a civilian priest -- all Roman Catholics -- were to officiate at the ceremony, the Navy said.
Navy divers recovered the three bodies in murky waters off Martha's Vineyard, 116 feet below the surface and 7 1/2 miles from shore.
"Today we were able to bring closure to two families, and that I think we realize is very important," said Coast Guard Rear Adm. Richard M. Larrabee, who added the bodies were raised "in a way that respected the situation they were in. It was something we were very sensitive to."
The plane's debris reflected the speed at which it struck the water, with pieces spread more than 40 yards from the main crash site, Larrabee said.
Working with visibility of 5 to 8 feet, divers encountered twisted wreckage, with wires and seats askew, "the kind of thing you can imagine that would be the result of a high-impact contact with the water," he said.
To keep TV cameras away, flights were banned within five miles of the recovery effort led by the USS Grasp, a Navy salvage ship. Sen. Kennedy and his sons, Patrick and Edward Jr., were aboard the Grasp when the bodies were recovered and accompanied the remains to Woods Hole.
The victims' families endured a five-day vigil before the bodies were brought to Cape Cod on Wednesday night for autopsies. The medical examiner determined all three died instantly of multiple traumatic injuries resulting from the plane crash, according to a statement released by the Cape & Islands district attorney.
The Cape Cod Times reported Thursday the Kennedy family had asked that no photographs be taken during the autopsy of JFK Jr. because they could end up in tabloids or on the Internet. Such photographs are routine.
Cape & Islands First Assistant District Attorney Michael O'Keefe would not deny the published report or say whether the alleged request was honored.
"The wishes of the family were appropriately expressed," he said. "Where it was possible, they were followed."
Kennedy, 38, was piloting his single-engine Piper Saratoga from New Jersey on Friday night when it dropped from radar 16 1/2 miles from Martha's Vineyard Airport.
Kennedy and his 33-year-old wife had planned to drop Lauren Bessette, 34, off at Martha's Vineyard and then fly to Hyannis Port for the wedding of his cousin, Rory.
Flight data showed the plane dropped precipitously after Kennedy took a right turn away from the Vineyard, and aviation experts said he may have been disoriented.
The wreckage, including a section of fuselage with the instrument panel, will be taken to the Coast Guard Air Station on Cape Cod for examination. It will be six to nine months before the accident's cause is determined, said James Hall, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board.
The family of the Bessette sisters issued a statement thanking everyone who assisted in the exhaustive search.
"We believe that our children are with us in spirit each and every moment, and that is what helps sustain us," the Freemans said.
A private Mass for Kennedy and his wife was scheduled for Friday morning at the Church of St. Thomas More, a Roman Catholic church in New York once attended by his mother, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. President Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton were expected to attend.
At a White House news conference, Clinton defended his decision to pour so many federal resources into the search for the plane. The Briscoe had been conducting training near Virginia when it was sent to Massachusetts to pick up family members for the ceremony.
"If anyone believes that was wrong, the Coast Guard is not at fault, I am," said Clinton, who based his decision on the Kennedys' role "in our national lives, and because of the enormous losses that they have sustained in our lifetimes."
An invitation-only service for Kennedy's sister-in-law is planned for Saturday night at Christ Church, an Episcopal church in Greenwich, Conn. New York's Irish community also planned a public ceremony tonight at Old St. Patrick's Cathedral in downtown Manhattan, and the Pentagon planned an observance Friday aboard the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy.
Kennedy, the son of the 35th president, was being returned to waters where he enjoyed sailing, sea kayaking and even searching for a sunken pirate ship.