Washington [US], June 8: William Anders, an astronaut who was one of the first three people to orbit the moon, and who took the famous "Earthrise" photo, died Friday after a small plane he was in crashed in the water north of Seattle, according to NASA, local officials and his family. He was 90.
The Coast Guard for the Pacific Northwest said just before 1 p.m. local time that it and the San Juan County Sheriff's Office were responding to a plane crash between Orcas and Jones islands, which are around 80 miles north of Seattle.
The sheriff's office said only the pilot was believed to have been in the two-seat plane. A body was recovered and the pilot's identification retrieved, it said.
Anders' son, retired Air Force Lt. Col. Greg Anders, confirmed the death to The Associated Press.
"The family is devastated," Greg Anders said, according to the news agency. "He was a great pilot and we will miss him terribly."
NASA Administrator Sen. Bill Nelson offered his condolences.
"In 1968, during Apollo 8, Bill Anders offered to humanity among the deepest of gifts an astronaut can give. He traveled to the threshold of the Moon and helped all of us see something else: ourselves. He embodied the lessons and the purpose of exploration. We will miss him," Nelson wrote on X.
The first report of the plane crash came into the San Juan Sheriff's Office dispatch center at around 11:40 a.m. Friday, Sheriff Eric Peter said, and authorities responded. The report was that an older model plane was flying north to south and went into the water and sunk. (Agencies)
Source: Qatar Tribune
