William Anders Death: What We Know About Astronaut's Plane Crash

Former NASA astronaut William Anders was killed in a plane crash on Friday off the coast of Jones Island in San Juan County, Washington state, according to his family. He was 90 years old.

Anders was the sole occupant of a Beechcraft T-34 Mentor which crashed in what the National Transportation Safety Board described as "unknown circumstances" around 80 feet from the island.

The Context

In December 1968 Anders was part of the team which circled the moon onboard Apollo 8. He took what later became an iconic photograph of the Earth rising beyond the lunar landscape.

The mission was the first human spaceflight to make it past the Earth's orbit.

According to his online NASA biography Anders graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1955 after which he joined the Air Force as a pilot, before being selected by the federal body as an astronaut in 1964. In this capacity he was the lunar module pilot for Apollo 8 which orbited the Moon 10 times without landing, before returning to Earth. Seven months later Neil Armstrong became the first person to step foot on the Moon as part of the Apollo 11 mission.

American astronaut William Anders, of NASA's Apollo 8 mission. Anders, who took an iconic picture of Earth from space, was killed in a plane crash in Washington state on Friday. J.B. Spector/Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago/GETTY

Anders' death was confirmed by his son, Greg Anders, who said the family is "devastated" adding: "He was a great pilot and we will miss him terribly."

In a statement the San Juan County Sheriff's Office said it was called to reports of a plane crash at 11:40 a.m. on Friday involving "an older model plane which was flying from north to south, then went into the water and sunk."

Officers responded along with members of the U.S. Coast Guard and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Speaking to local network KOMO News San Juan County Sheriff's Office later confirmed Anders' body was recovered from the crashed aircraft shortly before 5:40 p.m., after which it was handed to the San Juan County Coroner's Office.

Newsweek contacted the San Juan County Sheriff's Office by telephone and voicemail message outside of usual office hours on Saturday.

Earthrise, taken on December 24, 1968, by Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders and widely regarded as one of the most iconic photographs in the history of human spaceflight. Heritage Space/Heritage Images/GETTY

Footage of the crash was recorded by two wildlife watchers and shared with Seattle-based network KING5 News. It showed a small aircraft diving toward the water whilst trying to pull up, before it crashed and immediately caught fire before sinking.

Speaking to KING5 News the cameraman said: "It went into a barrel roll, sort of a loop. It was inverted, went into this barrel roll loop thing. Tried to pull up before it hit the water, but it was too low and it started to loop, and it didn't clear the water.

"It looked like it clipped a wing at first and went down very hard, burst into flames, broke apart, and instantly went underwater."

Views

Emotive tributes were paid to Anders on social media after his death was confirmed. On X, formerly Twitter, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, himself a former astronaut, wrote: "Bill Anders forever changed our perspective of our planet and ourselves with his famous Earthrise photo on Apollo 8. He inspired me and generations of astronauts and explorers. My thoughts are with his family and friends." This post was also shared by the official NASA X account.

The U.S. Naval Institute commented: "#RIP astronaut William Anders who died in a plane crash on Friday at the age of 90. Anders graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1955 and opted to be commissioned a second lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force. As a crew member of Apollo 8, he took the iconic Earthrise photograph."