International Courant
ISTANBUL
Former Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders died in a airplane crash close to Seattle late Friday on the age of 90, based on media reviews.
Anders’ dying was confirmed by his son, Gregory Anders, who instructed CNN his “dad handed in an plane incident within the San Juan Islands,” in Washington state, CNN reported.
“The household is devastated and grieving the lack of an amazing pilot,” Gregory Anders mentioned.
The incident occurred off the coast of Jones Island, based on the San Juan County Sheriff’s Workplace, mentioned CNN.
The dispatch middle obtained a report round 11.40 a.m. (1840GMT) concerning the older mannequin airplane flying southward earlier than it went down into the water close to the north finish of Jones Island and sank, the workplace added.
The US Coast Guard additionally introduced that it performed a search spanning 215 nautical miles (398 kilometers), finally recovering the pilot’s physique with the assistance of a dive workforce.
Who’s William Anders?
William Anders was born on Oct. 17, 1933, in Hong Kong, graduating from the US Naval Academy in 1955, the place he earned his pilot’s wings the next yr after being commissioned within the US Air Pressure.
He served as a fighter pilot in California and Iceland and managed nuclear energy reactor shielding and radiation results applications on the Air Pressure Weapons Laboratory in New Mexico, based on NASA.
Chosen by NASA as an astronaut in 1964, Anders was a backup pilot for the Gemini 11 mission and the Apollo 11 flight, logging over 6,000 hours of flying time.
In December 1968, he orbited the moon aboard the Apollo 8 mission with Jim Lovell and Frank Borman, capturing the long-lasting “Earthrise” picture, which he described as a pivotal second in human historical past. “We got here all this strategy to discover the moon, and an important factor is that we found the Earth,” he had mentioned.
Past his area missions, Anders served as government secretary for the Nationwide Aeronautics and Area Council in 1969-1973 and was appointed the primary chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Fee by President Gerald Ford.
Anders is survived by his spouse, two daughters, and 4 sons.
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