BOSTON (AP) -- Government officials said Friday the mission to search for John F. Kennedy Jr.'s plane and recover the three bodies aboard cost the Coast Guard more than $525,000.
The Coast Guard -- one of several agencies involved -- had said last week its costs were $287,402 in the first two days of the search for Kennedy's Piper Saratoga II, which crashed on July 17. The effort involved patrol boats, helicopters and other aircraft stationed along the East Coast.Over the next three days, the Coast Guard spent about $240,440.
"The president made it clear we should have done what we did -- go the extra mile for a family who has suffered so much and contributed so much," U.S. Transportation Secretary Rodney E. Slater told a crowd of 150 people Friday at an award ceremony for those involved in the search.
Representatives from more than a dozen federal, state and local police and rescue agencies were on hand for the ceremony.
Coast Guard spokesman Mike Lapinski said he was angered by criticism of the mission's cost.
"During the same time as the Kennedy search we had two other search-and-rescues that actually took more resources," he said. They were an unsuccessful search for a man who fell off his boat off the coast of Puerto Rico, and the rescue of three fishermen off the coast of Hawaii.
Also on Friday, four civilian airplanes paid tribute to Kennedy by flying in a missing-man formation at the Experimental Aircraft Association fly-in and convention in Oshkosh, Wis.
"The whole show centers around aviation and that was one of the things he loved," said Heather Ray, 38, of Ontario, Canada. "He was a great guy who lived as much life as he could in a short time."