Some people call it the “Kennedy Curse.” But does that mean a series of coincidental tragedies over the decades, or an other-worldly campaign targeting the progeny of one of the most powerful men of the last century?

A family with a long and influential history in American politics, the very name “Kennedy” conjures up images of wealth, power and presidency — at least one Kennedy family member served in federal elective office in every year from 1947 to 2011. But early on, tragedy began to strike, and it wasn’t long before the Kennedy name also became synonymous with calamity and misfortune. Disaster varied from murder to plane crashes, drownings to skiing accidents, and catastrophic illness. While there are still several prominent members of the Kennedy family in the public eye today, luck and good fortune seem to have disappeared from their lives long ago, replaced by tragedy affecting immediate family members, spouses, and even the families of spouses and friends.

For decades, there’s been much speculation about what’s come to be known as the “Kennedy Curse.” Is it all coincidence, or is there really something “bigger” that has haunted the family and taken its vengeance on the children and descendants of businessman Joseph P. Kennedy Sr.?

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“What do you want me to do, crack up an airplane?” Senator Ted Kennedy asks with a grin.

“Nope, just parachute out of it into the convention,” his travel coordinator, Ed Moss responds.

It’s 1964, and 32-year-old Kennedy is campaigning for reelection to the Senate for Massachusetts. The state’s democratic convention is scheduled for that night, and as they head to catch their flight of out Washington, Kennedy and his aide wittily debate pulling off a spectacular entrance.

Notwithstanding a warning of bad weather and rolling fog, Moss engages pilot Ed Zimny to fly a chartered Aero Commander 680 twin-engine aircraft to Barnes Airport in Westfield. Senator Birch Bayh and his wife are soon seated in the aircraft along with Kennedy, as Bayh is the convention’s keynote speaker. The aircraft soars skyward soon after 8:00 p.m. After three hours of uneventful flying, Zimny radios the Barnes control tower that he’ll attempt an instrument landing in the zero-visibility conditions.

In the course of managing the campaigning in western states for his brother John’s 1960 Presidential run, Ted Kennedy had learned to fly. Now, as he sits in the Aero Commander, his gaze is fastened on the instrument panel. He watches intently as the altimeter sinks from 1,100 to 600 feet. To his horror, there is no glide which transforms into a bumpy but safe landing. Heart-stopping skidding along the treetops ensues instead. Then comes the bone-shaking impact. They have collided with a tree.

Bayh is brought back to consciousness by his wife’s screams. His dazed gaze flits over his startling surroundings. Cracked branches tangle with airplane wreckage. Leaves mingle with gore. The plane lies crumpled in an apple orchard, its belly slit open as though a knife has sliced through it. Zimny and Moss are clearly dead. His eyes rest on Kennedy. Bayh realizes that he’s trapped. With a burst of adrenaline, he lugs Kennedy, who is no lightweight, under his arm and out of the shambles.

Kennedy is soon sprawled on a Northampton Cooley Dickinson Hospital bed, undergoing an urgent blood transfusion. He has three crushed vertebrae, a punctured lung, broken ribs, and a profusion of internal bleeding. When the worst is over, he faces the discomfiting news — he must brace himself for a five-month recovery within the rigid confines of a Stryker frame bed.

When the news hits the press, Reporter Jimmy Breslin interviews Robert, Ted’s older brother.

“Is it ever going to end for you people?”

Bobby gives the reporter a serious answer, “If my mother hadn’t had any more children after her first four, she would have nothing now… I guess the only reason we’ve survived is that… there are more of us than there is trouble.”

“It’s a curse,” Ted’s wife Joan tells her sister-in-law Jackie Kennedy, the fresh widow of JFK, who was assassinated the year before. “Look at the things that have happened. Can we just chalk it up to coincidence?”

Later, Robert, accompanied by federal investigator and family friend Walter Sheridan, visits Ted in the hospital. “Somebody up there doesn’t like us,” Robert tells him.