SAN JUAN COUNTY, Wash. — Retired Maj. Gen. William “Bill” Anders, the former Apollo 8 astronaut who took the famous “Earthrise” photo showing the planet as a shadowed blue marble from space in 1968, was killed in a plane crash in the San Juan Islands Friday morning. He was 90 years old.
Anders’ son, Lt. Col. Greg Anders, confirmed to KOMO News his father was killed when the vintage Beechcraft T-34 Mentor he was flying alone crashed.
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The San Juan County Sheriff’s Office said the crash was first reported to the dispatch center around 11:40 a.m. Friday. The sheriff’s office said an “older model plane” was reportedly flying from north to south before crashing near the north end of Jones Island and sunk.
The National Transportation Safety Board confirmed to KOMO News Friday afternoon it was investigating a Beechcraft A A 45, also known as a T-34, that crashed about 80 feet offshore of Jones Island. The NTSB said the T-34 crashed “under unknown circ*mstances.”
San Juan County Sheriff Eric Peter said a search team with members from the WDFW and U.S. Customs and Border Protection/ Department of Homeland Security recovered Anders’ body from the downed aircraft just before 5:40 p.m. Friday. Anders’ body was then turned over to the San Juan County Coroner’s Office.
In May 2017, when Anders was 84 years old, he was featured as one of Eric Johnson’s “Heroes.” Anders’ son told KOMO News the T-34 that crashed Friday was the same plane he flew in his 2017 appearance on KOMO News. Anders said a Beechcraft T-34 Mentor was the very first plane he flew solo in many, many years ago.
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“Once the aircraft is recovered from the water, it will be transported to an offsite facility for further examination by NTSB investigators,” the NTSB said in a statement to KOMO News.
Anders was born on October 17, 1933, in Hong Kong. At the time, his father was a Navy lieutenant aboard the USS Panay, which was a U.S. gunboat in China's Yangtze River.
Anders and his wife, Valerie, founded the Heritage Flight Museum in Washington state in 1996. It is now based at a regional airport in Burlington, and features 15 aircrafts, several antique military vehicles, a library and many artifacts donated by veterans, according to the museum’s website. Two of his sons helped him run it.
The couple moved to Orcas Island, in the San Juan archipelago, in 1993, and kept a second home in their hometown of San Diego, according to a biography on the museum's website. They had six children and 13 grandchildren. Their current Washington home was in Anacortes.
Anders graduated from the Naval Academy in 1955 and served as a fighter pilot in the Air Force.
He later served on the Atomic Energy Commission, as the U.S. chairman of the joint U.S.-U.S.S.R. technology exchange program for nuclear fission and fusion power, and as ambassador to Norway. He later worked for General Electric and General Dynamics, according to his NASA biography.
“This is a very somber and tragic incident, and the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office sends its sincere condolences and prayers to the victim and his family,” San Juan County Sheriff Eric Peter wrote on Facebook.
Sheriff’s office deputies along with crews with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, the U.S. Coast Guard, Department of Homeland Security and the NTSB responded to the scene of the crash.
Anders recalls capturing the "Earthrise" photo
Anders was on Apollo 8, along with Frank Borman and Jim Lovell. He was one of the first three members of humankind to break free from Earth's grasp and leave its orbit.
"Apollo 8 is very real in my mind when I look up at the moon and it's very new, which is the way it was when we went,” he told KOMO News in 2017.
On December 24, 1968, during Apollo 8's fourth trip around the moon, with Anders and the others looking out from their tiny ship, something extraordinary happened. It was planet Earth, blue and infinitely beautiful and so tiny against the blackness and nothingness behind it, rising above the scorched surface of the moon.
"One of my secondary duties on Apollo 8 was a photographer, to take pictures of potential landing sites and geological features of interest on the moon, and we had no light meters," Anders explained.
Then, Anders said something astounding, in retrospect: "Nobody thought about taking pictures of the Earth."
Anders said NASA had planned everything about the trip in detail, but nobody had made even the slightest mention of taking a photograph of our blue planet. Somehow it had fallen through the cracks of one of the greatest journeys ever taken by humans.
On the grainy film from 1968, you can hear Anders say, "Hand me a roll of color, quick!" And then, "Oh man, I have it right here!"
"And so basically, when the Earth came up, I basically pointed the camera, got color film, got a long lens so the Earth would be bigger, and started clicking away and changing the F-stop as I went,” Anders told KOMO News in 2017.
Anders said he knew it was something special the moment it happened. That is proven on the film when he can be heard saying, "Oh, that's a beautiful shot!"
But, while still inside the capsule, there was no way any of them could have known the impact the picture would have on that bright blue marble that was dancing before them on Dec. 24, 1968.
It came to be known as the “Earthrise” photo. It was our first look at ourselves. Our first image of how delicate we are, and how small.
The NTSB asked any witnesses to the crash or anyone who has information about that crash that could be relevant to the investigation to contact investigators at witness@ntsb.gov.
Former KOMO News Anchor Eric Johnson, and Associated Press writers Gene Johnson, Audrey Mcavoy and Lisa Baumann contributed to this report.
