On June 19, 1964, Kennedy was a passenger in a private
Aero Commander 680 airplane flying in bad weather from Washington to Massachusetts. The plane crashed into an apple orchard in the
western Massachusetts town of
Southampton on the
final approach to the
Barnes Municipal Airport in
Westfield.
[51][52] The pilot and Edward Moss (one of Kennedy's aides) were killed.
[53] Kennedy was pulled from the wreckage by fellow Senator
Birch Bayh[51] and spent months in a hospital recovering from a severe back injury, a
punctured lung, broken ribs and internal bleeding.