Henry Rifle Forums

Major General Bill Anders, former Apollo 8 Astronaut, crashed his personally owned two seat trainer into the water June 7th, while he was apparently practicing acrobatics for an upcoming airshow. He was 90 years old, with thousands of hours of flight time.



https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bhJeIM2ML ... rt_radio=1



Eye witnesses stated the engine was running smoothly and the pilot appeared to be fully in control of the aircraft, just pulled out of the low level loop late, and struck the water. The aircraft broke apart, exploding, and bursting into flames, immediately sinking. General Anders did not survive the crash.

There are multiple additional stories on youtube.

Hell of a way to go.

I was too young to know who he was from his Hey Dey, but he took a famous picture on that flight, "Earth Rise," one of the most famous shots of our planet.


He also shared Apollo 8 with another famous Astronaut, Jim Lovell, of Apollo 13 fame. In an interview, at age 85, he told the reporter he loved flying, and that he would continue to fly as long as he was able to climb, ah... crawl... into a cockpit. I'd say he went out the way he would have wanted to go. Rather than in a hospital, weeks hooked to a bank of machines.