Retired Maj. Gen. William Anders, the former Apollo 8 astronaut who took the iconic “Earthrise” photo showing the planet from space in 1968, was killed after a plane he was piloting alone Friday morning crashed off the coast of Jones Island, according to his son Greg Anders. William Anders was 90.
On Dec. 24, 1968, Anders and fellow astronauts Frank Borman and Jim Lovell became the first humans to orbit the Moon.
“The family is devastated,” Greg Anders said. “He was a great pilot and we will miss him.”
The plane was flying north to south when it went down near the north end of Jones Island and sank, according to San Juan County Sheriff Eric Peter. The National Transportation Safety Board said Friday afternoon the plane had been located.
The Federal Aviation Administration and NTSB are investigating the crash. The NTSB said Friday afternoon the crash occurred “under unknown circumstances.”
Once the aircraft is recovered, the NTSB will examine it. As part of its investigation, the board will also look at flight track data, aircraft maintenance records, air traffic control communications, witness statements and information about the pilot.
The NTSB expects to release a preliminary report in 30 days. The final report, which will include the probable cause of the crash, could take one to two years.
Anders and his wife, Valerie, moved to Orcas Island in 1993, according to the Heritage Flight Museum, which the couple started around the P-51 Val-Halla in 1996. The museum is now located at the Skagit Regional Airport in Burlington, Skagit County. The couple has six children and 13 grandchildren, according to the museum website.
Anders, Borman and Lovell were initially assigned to the Apollo 9 mission, a medium Earth orbit mission, according to the site. Development issues with the lunar module, and the pressure of the Space Race, led to the Apollo 8 mission being re-tasked to a lunar orbit mission without a lunar module and the original crews for Apollo 8 and 9 being switched, the site says.
“I figured there were three possibilities, about equally weighted,” Anders told The Seattle Times in 2012. “One, we could go and have a successful mission — one-third chance — which is what happened. Or, we could go, survive and not have a successful mission — that’s Apollo 13. Or, we could go and we wouldn’t come back; splat somewhere.”
“Pretty good odds,” he said.
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