William Anders, a Apollo 8 astronaut, was killed in a plane accident over Puget Sound in Washington on Friday afternoon. The incident was captured on video.
According to Fox 13, Anders was the owner of the vintage Air Force T-34 Mentor, a small propeller plane, and his acquaintances claimed that he was piloting the aircraft at the time of its loss.
The plane appeared to be attempting to ascend as it struck the water at a high velocity, as evidenced by the video. A short-lived eruption of a substantial flame was accompanied by a black smoke column.
The accident occurred between Orcas Island and Jones Island, according to the United States Coast Guard Northwest.
On the inaugural manned space mission to orbit the moon in 1968, Anders captured the iconic “Earthrise” photograph.
The crew of Apollo 8 read from the book of Genesis in a live telecast that was viewed by millions of people worldwide during the spacecraft’s orbit around the moon on Christmas Eve.
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