||| FROM FOX13SEATTLE |||
Retired American astronaut William Anders, who was a member of the Apollo 8 crew, has been identified as the pilot inside the plane that crashed in the waters off the San Juan Islands on Friday afternoon.
According to flight data and FAA records, FOX 13 Seattle has confirmed the plane that crashed was a vintage Air Force T-34 Mentor, which is owned by Anders, who is also a San Juan County resident.
Several social media posts and messages from friends reported that Anders was at the controls when the plane crashed.
Crews responded to a plane crash in the San Juan Islands on Friday afternoon. Officials with the United States Coast Guard Pacific Northwest said the crash happened near Orcas Island before 11:45 a.m.
Early life of William Anders
William Anders was born on Oct. 17, 1933, in Hong Kong, but he grew up in San Diego. In 1955, Anders graduated from the United States Naval Academy with a bachelor of science degree, and received his master of science degree in nuclear engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology in 1962. He completed the Harvard Business School Advanced Management Program in 1979.
Recruited by NASA
In 1964, Anders was selected by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to be an astronaut with responsibilities for dosimetry, radiation effects and environmental control.
He was a backup pilot for the Gemini XI, Apollo 11 flights, and was lunar module pilot for Apollo 8.
Very sad news. Bill was one of the greatest explorers of all time. Apollo 8 was a huge leap into space. And he brought back an image that reverberated with humanity ever since, one of the most important images of the 20th century.
I’m just the poop guy around here; he was always kind and friendly to me woking in his yard. A nice normal guy who shared himself with all of us really…the whole Country.
Thanks and best to family Anders.
Sad news indeed. Bill and his dear wife Valerie contributed so much to life here on Orcas.
My heart goes out to their family and especially to Valerie.
working not woking.
Really?
We pray for the Andrews family. Bill and his wife gave to Orcas Islsnd and the world. Bill was an excellent explorer and a gentleman.
For the benefit of younger readers: The December, 1968 Apollo 8 mission was the first manned flight to the moon. The capsule carried three astronauts once around the moon, using the gravitational force of the moon to help bring them back to earth.. They were the first humans to see the far side of the moon. They and the Apollo 16 moon landing (July, 1969) fulfilled President Kennedy’s 1961 challenge that NASA should send a man to the moon before the end of the 1960s, and return him safely to earth.
As they emerged from behind the moon, the three astronauts saw earth coming into view. Bill Anders grabbed a camera and shot that famous picture, showing earth rising behind the moon. The “earthrise” picture showed us how fragile our earth is, and it is credited with helping raise environmental consciousness, which led to passage of the National Environmental Protection Act (and various state laws patterned after that Federal one).
But what is most memorable to me is that 1968 had been perhaps the most divisive, and the most difficult (awful!) year that our country has faced during my lifetime: In January, the Tet Offensive in Viet Nam gave momentum to an antiwar movement, that caused President Johnson to end his campaign for reelection; Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated, followed by rioting in cities across the country. In August, riots broke out at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, and at that same time (while we were looking inward), the Soviet Union invaded and subjugated the country of Czechoslovakia. In the fall election, a former Vice President, Richard Nixon, captured the White House by narrowly defeating the sitting Vice President, Hubert Humphrey — but 13% of the popular vote went to an avowed segregationist, Alabama Governor George Wallace.
Then, on December 21st, as 1968 was drawing to a close, those three men got on top of that big rocket and blasted off, giving all the country something we could root for, and then to cheer together as they arrived safely back to earth. Bill Anders, Frank Borman, and James Lovell helped rejuvenate our national spirit. I am so thankful to have had the opportunity to shake the hand of Bill Anders — truly an American hero.
Thanks for that important historical perspective, Doug. At a time of multiple tragedies and intense social conflict, the Apollo moonshot gave us all reason to feel inspire and united by that amazing image of One Earth.
In tribute to Bill Anders.
High Flight, by John Gillespie Magee Jr.
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds,—and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of—wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air ….
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark nor ever eagle flew—
And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
And perhaps, like Icarus, Bill flew just once too close to the Sun.
Respect! Thank you Bill. Condolences to all friends and family.