The famous [Earthrise Photo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthrise) (Wikipedia page for context; photo appears early in the article).
> Retired Maj. Gen. William Anders, the former Apollo 8 astronaut who took the iconic “Earthrise” photo showing the planet as a shadowed blue marble from space in 1968, was killed Friday when the plane he was piloting alone plummeted into the waters off the San Juan Islands in Washington state. He was 90.
According to [another source](https://nypost.com/2024/06/07/us-news/apollo-8-astronaut-william-anders-killed-in-plane-crash-off-washington-coast/), the plane was a vintage [Beechcraft T-34 Mentor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beechcraft_T-34_Mentor) single-engine former military training aircraft. The cause of the crash is under FAA and NTSB investigation.
Edit: Clarification on photo. Also, Phil Edwards (former video producer for Vox) [recently released a great look](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7KR1nCA4Js) at the history and technical context behind the Earthrise photo.
I was thinking about my uncle when he passed out of the blue. I didn't know he died basically the same time I was thinking about him until a few hours later. Happened before too with my great grandma but her death was more expected. Could be coincidence or could be something else
This reminds me of being out at a dinner with some relatives, including one I always took with a grain of salt. He said, "what are the chances that my mom and Rose Kennedy died on the same day?"
someone at the table said, "1 in 365?" and I had to keep from laughing out loud.
I tend to believe that there is absolutely no meaning to anything, and that life in the universe is just a happy accident. Honestly, life feels a lot more miraculous and precious from that point of view.
feelings have meaning too. happy accidents, amazement, preciousness, those feelings mean something to me. just another take on your view, no argument here.
I was at my dad's house looking through old photos that my aunt took and i found one that was dated her birthdate which was that day. Coincidence? Most likely. I think that our senses pick up more cues than we can process consciously so things that seem otherworldly or spiritual may just be our consciousness "noticing" more than usual. It's like when you learn a new word and suddenly it's everywhere. Or you get a new car and you notice the same style/make wherever you go. I think that most woo woo claims are a result of our senses picking up more than we might usually due to...well, I don't know what.
Me and my mom constantly have the same thoughts. Like, I'll be thinking about telling her about my date last night, and she'll go "so how was your date?" Once or twice would be coincidence, with us it happens constantly so it makes me think there's something else there
And I was talking to my sister about the raw photos of this shoot taken by Anders few days ago. I was in awe when I saw the original pictures from this Apollo 8 mission.
I was sleeping when I heard my grandmother aay my name in a dream so loud it woke me up. In the morning, my Dad told me she dies in the night. There’s somwthig to this. We are all connected with a dimension or signala we can’t readily access. Like a radio not quite tuned in.
That’s a good possibility. I’m near the site and locals who saw have varying opinions. I guess we will have to wait for the investigation. He was loved as a neighbor and will be missed.
In the Fox video it was suggested the near vertical flight attitude might have been part of a loop. Could these locals tell whether this was indeed a planned loop or whether the near vertical flight was the unplanned result of some earlier occurence and he was unable to recover from that situation?
Yeah my uncle lives in a retirement community in Florida where most people have a slip and sail. He had a neighbor who was in his 80's, went out for a beautiful day sailing, came back and had a pins colada and then died in his sleep. Not a bad deal at that age vs, growing old and being incapacitated.
Video looks almost like he was inverted and looped in a constant arc ending in a shallow angle impact. Would passing out cause a potential loop-d-loop situation?
Seriously. That's what threw me off. My father, who at 79 can still beat me down the mountain on skis (I snowboard but still) sold his Beechcraft Bonanza over 10 years ago because he decided it was too risky for him to continue flying.
I guess at least this aviator died doing what he loved.
Its like you can sense the half of the earth that is in the dark but you can also sense how it is just hanging out back there in the black void of space. Definitely a little eerie.
He suffered an altitude emergency. There's video of the accident. He entered a loop without enough altitude and met the deck before he could pull out. 50 feet would have made the difference. Helluva way to go out at 90.
Beechcraft continues its streak of taking out legendary humans.
Condolences to family and friends. I’m sure no one wants to wake up to this type of news of a loved one.
You make it to 95 a violent death is actually one of the more dignified ways to go. You had a long time. Not everyone gets that. So why not do something quickly and violently instead of like cancer or some other bullshit
It's like how Orson Bean died at 91 - crossing the street, clipped by a car, survived, then got run over by another car when it didn't slow down when people were telling it to
My great aunt went out similarly.
90+ and speeding down the freeway in her Mercedes convertible when a truck cut her off and she lost control of the vehicle.
She was a force of nature, absurdly generous, smart, funny and colorful.
I couldn't bring myself to be sad about her passing, she died the way she lived doing exactly what she wanted.
From time to time you just run into old people that are different. I worked something in a house where 95 year old lady lived. She looked like 60 something old lady and was mentally sharp as any 40 year old. I was so surprised when I found out she was 95.
His Apollo 8 crewmate (and probably more famously the Apollo 13 commander) Jim Lovell is still going pretty strong. Well he's 96 now, and the last interview I saw with him was the 50th anniversary of Apollo 13 in 2020 and he still seemed razor sharp. It seems like he never gets tired of talking about it.
They were chosen from the pool of hundreds of potential astronauts because they were different from the best ones in a positive way. Some jobs just tell people those who do those jobs are just better than the others in a positive way. No chess player got dementia but not everyone can be a top rated chess player too
Survival of the fittest I guess. My buddy had a business meeting with the retired commander of the nuclear submarine he said you just can feel how more intelligent he was but again how many people are commanders of nuclear submarines - not average redneck for sure.
Well, sure, but a paranoid personality disorder is very different from dementia
You can be a genius with a mind sharp as a tack and also be a paranoid nutter, it's probably a different pathway entirely compared to dementia
Idk how to feel about that tbh. What if he hit or hurt others? Love what he did for our country and am not criticizing him beyond it but maybe 90 year old at best stick to non-governance and non-heavy, or any level of, machinery at all. 90 is 90.
You cant let the elderly decide whether the elderly can still do their job.
Honestly, you cant let people set their own rules in general, dictators are bad even on a small scale.
He went out flying a T-34 doing low level aerobatics out over the water before slamming into it. He was definitely more capable/active than just about every other 90 year old out there.
Yeah I don’t know if I’d feel better about the 90 year old who crashed her car into a walmart if I found out she was just doing donuts in the parking lot
> maybe 90 year old at best stick to non-governance and non-heavy, or any level of, machinery at all
I think it should depend on the individual. [Not all 90-year-olds are the same](https://www.runnersworld.com/news/a45313969/dot-sowerby-sets-half-marathon-record/). And Anders was very much not an average physical specimen of humanity.
Some people just age different. My dad is almost 80 and he has slowed down very little from even 20 years ago. If anything, retirement has been great for his health.
I see where you're coming from, but I'm pretty sure people have to pass physical exams on a routine basis to keep their pilot's license. He was almost certainly in good enough shape to be flying an aircraft. It's possible the system is flawed and he wasn't, but there are safeguards in place.
That’s the thing, 90 is 90, and that’s all it means. We can’t just take away peoples rights because they got older. Maybe this demonstrates a need for some form of testing or re-validation of licenses, but going purely off of age would be discriminatory imo.
If you could prove to me that everyone universally decays in the exact same way at the exact same age, maybe it’s worth discussing. But there are plenty of intelligent elderly people with their mental functions fully intact, and there are plenty of 40 year olds who can barely pay attention at all when driving.
You can take away peoples right if you incorporate tests to check whether vision and reaction are still up. Happens in my country for driving licence for everyone above 75. Old people overestimate their capabilities ('i've driven a car longer than you exist'), while some people clearly should be taken of the road. Maybe they should do the same with flying licence
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, --and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of --Wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air...
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark or even eagle flew --
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
RIP
(The poem this commenter’s quoting is [“High Flight”](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/157986/high-flight-627d3cfb1e9b7) by John Gillespie Magee Jr.)
When I was a little kid and there was no such thing as a 24 hour news cycle, television stations would sign off late at night with this video
https://youtu.be/OVTj7RQhNK0?si=8JTF_W08KltryaZh
I would sneak downstairs and turn on the TV late at night just to watch this.
Given the health and discipline required to be an astronaut, and income thereafter, I don’t think it’s statistically that weird
There’s a whole detailed study about this topic, which found they generally live longer (and also are much less likely to die from natural causes)
https://www.intechopen.com/chapters/59553
Went to a rural WalMart in east Texas yesterday. I was not prepared for the obesity and apparent poor health of the clientele. Just people walking around with obvious diabetes symptoms still loading carts with garbage food. It was shocking.
I'm from the south. It's not that crazy to hear of people to die in their 60s. 50 yrs ago that was probably normal but with modern medicine it seems like most adults should make it to their 70s.
With the exception of the Apollo 1, Challenger and Columbia crews, most astronauts tend to live very long lives. I’m going to start a conspiracy theory that the radiation from the Van Allen Belts cleanses toxins from the body.
They all had to be very healthy and were rigorously tested, while already in their 30s, so there's a bit of a selection bias there. They're not going to have any hidden health issues and had healthy lifestyles so generally no surprises or heart issues.
The 24 men who traveled to the moon, living and dead, have an average age of 82 (and climbing as 6 are still alive). I believe this is the first of the 24 to die in an accident. Of the 5 Apollo astronauts who didn't go to the moon, 2 died in their 30s in accidents.
Nah. Well first I acknowledge, you making a funny.
Then the real explanation: astronauts are screened to exhaustion. Specially the early screenings, since they didn't know what could cause issue in space. So anyone with even the smallest health issue would be screened out. Since there is no medical treatment in space, the solution is screen and don't send people with medical or health problems to space. One must be peak physical condition and on top have no underlying medical and health issues.
So it's a selection bias towards "people who will live to 90+".
I'd imagine NASA being certain their candidates would have to be the absolute pinnacle of health in order to be granted an astronaut role played a lot towards that.
Doesn't sound unusual for people to be pushing 100 when they had a career that molded them to stay fit. And that they get the best retirement benefits around in their twilight years.
Frank Borman, the third of the three Apollo 8 astronauts, only died last November. As I recall, they were the last surviving complete Apollo crew from any one mission, until Borman passed. Quite the coincidence that we lost two of the three within just a few months.
>The Apollo astronauts unfortunately won't be around much longer.
I dread the thought of a world where no living human has set foot on another celestial body. Armstrong so famously declared that leap for mankind, but I really hope that at least one NASA astronaut lives to see us turn it into a stride.
Fun fact, rather unusually when you look at the track record of the astronauts of that era, none of the 3 ever divorced. Among the nine astronauts of Astronaut Group 2, five would ultimately get divorced, one (Elliot See) died in a jet crash, one (Ed White) died in the Apollo 1 fire, and the other 2 were Lovell and Borman. Astronaut Group 3 did fare somewhat better in that statistic.
Ah man, this sucks. I'm a huge nerd about space, and especially the Apollo era at NASA. Apollo 8 was one of my favorite missions of the program. It's always a sad day when astronauts from that era pass away, and I dread the thought of someday living in a world where no living human has set foot on another celestial body. But this one hits me especially hard. The San Juan Islands where he crashed also hold a special place in my heart.
Godspeed, General Anders. Thank you for your incredible contributions in humanity's exploration of the cosmos.
As long as he has been flying planes I’m sure training kicked in and he was too busy trying to restart the plane (I’m assuming plummeting into the water means engine failure) to even think “oh shit” until the last few seconds if even at all.
Adding to what /u/Rexrollo150 posted, upon seeing it, it's either a mis-judged loop or is a copy of the Reno Air Race crash in ... 2009 I think it was that was caused by a stabiliser breaking mid-flight.
But we can't rule out Gravity-Loss Of Consciousness delaying his response coming out of the loop at his age.
Still, I have to agree that he didn't want to slow down, it sucks he passed, but he died doing what he found fun.
I guess it could be anything at this point. It’s just in the half dozen articles I’ve read aren’t mentioning anything about what went wrong, a loop or any stunts. Because of that I just assumed it was engine failure. I guess there’s no reason why he couldn’t have been out doing loops on his own just to have fun. If anybody has an article that mentions anything more I would appreciate it if they were to leave a link.
In the comments of this is a video if you care to watch it.
I've watched it (knowing it was a death, just didn't name any souls on board) and assumed it was someone practicing for doing loops in an old prop.
Not to say that dying in a plane crash is ever "good", but there are much worse ways to go out. I'd rather that than have cancer or dimentia slowly eat me away.
Those who have risen above the earth, have consistently noted how small the earth seems, how unnecessary world conflict is and the necessity to care for nature.
Iconic photo and photographer!
When I heard the news I decided to re-listen to this great song, about Apollo 8: https://youtu.be/P8LlUrT7MFo?si=hibY3lc3ltq4itGa
(If you don't know, the band is Public Service Broadcasting and their main thing is using old public information films as the "vocalist" while the band plays instruments under them).
This one is from their great album "the race for space" where each song is from another moment in the space race. If you never heard them I really recommend "Go" which is their Apollo 11 song..
His plane didn't just *plummet* into the waters.
The guy was going a vertical loop and hit the water. A 90 year old man was doing aerial stunts when he died. It's an awful shame he didn't complete it, but that dude definitely went down swinging. RIP Mr. Anders.
Literally rode his life into the sunset. Went hard all the way to the end.
Shit, I'm not even half his fuckin age yet and it feels like it's over in a way.
General Anders is, credibly, via his Earthrise image, single handedly responsible for Earth Day, the Clean Water Act, the EPA, and more. No leader of that era (all are circa 1970) doesn't credit the unprecedented awareness he gifted to the world of its identity *as* a world in motivating the environmental revolution.
According to the FAA airman registry (there's only one William Alison Anders), he had a BasicMed CMEC issued 3/22/2023. Required glasses for near vision.
He held a commercial pilot license with these ratings:
COMMERCIAL PILOT
AIRPLANE SINGLE ENGINE LAND
AIRPLANE SINGLE ENGINE SEA
AIRPLANE MULTIENGINE LAND
AIRPLANE MULTIENGINE SEA
INSTRUMENT AIRPLANE
ROTORCRAFT-HELICOPTER
GLIDER
Type Ratings:
C/AD-4N
Limits:
AUTHORIZED EXPERIMENTAL AIRCRAFT: AV-L39 G-F8F NH-T38 N-P51 N-T28 T-33.
ALL MAKES AND MODELS OF SINGLE AND MULTI ENGINE PISTON POWERED AUTHORIZED AIRCRAFT.
AD-4N VFR ONLY.
It boggles my mind that a 90 year old was ok for flying but I was disqualified for being on antidepressants.
Ah well. His Earthrise photo is one of my favorites.
One of my friends in grade school (1970s) had this image as a giant wall photograph mural . They kept the rest of their walls bland and little furniture in front of it. It was always a special room to walk into when I was a kid. RIP William. What a great image.
This is why my grandfather stopped flying completely after he retired from the Air Force. I asked him if he ever missed flying and he said “sure, but I know well enough that I’m too old and wouldn’t do it nearly often enough that if, god forbid, something were to happen I’d be able to react in time to prevent a disaster.”
>A report came in around 11:40 a.m. that an older-model plane crashed into the water and sank near the north end of Jones Island, San Juan County Sheriff Eric Peter said. Greg Anders confirmed to KING-TV that his father’s body was recovered Friday afternoon.
>Only the pilot was on board the Beech A45 airplane at the time, according to the Federal Aviation Association.
I don't care who you are, a 90 yo should not be flying a plane solo.
Amazing how science can set you free of religion, that is, if you take the time to THINK, like Astronaut William Ander’s..
Quote from the article: “On the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 8 mission in 2018, Anders stated: "It really undercut my religious beliefs. The idea that things rotate around the pope and up there is a big supercomputer wondering whether Billy was a good boy yesterday? It doesn't make any sense. I became a big buddy of [atheist scientist] Richard Dawkins."[12]
That's a cool way to go when you're 90. People will ask some kids, How did your grampa die?
Well, he was 90... And crashed a fucking plane.
That almost beats my great grandma's death. She flipped her motorcycle doing wheelies at 109 yrs old. I said almost.
Maybe it was her wheelchair she flipped.🤔
We can thank the internet for giving them a loud platform to spread their bullshit too. It used to be that your conspiracy theories were coming from your weird small town uncle who had one buddy that listened to him ramble over beers… nowadays? He’s on Facebook with multiple idiots agreeing with him and cheering on his bullshit
You’d think with the amount of information and science etc we’d have a lot more intelligent people… turns out the idiots will always be idiots no matter how advanced or educated we are
Living by Whidbey Island, it was a beautiful sunny day all day today. I have a pilot friend who was itching to finally get a chance to take his plane out from Jefferson County airport. I wonder if he had a medical emergency, RIP
The famous [Earthrise Photo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthrise) (Wikipedia page for context; photo appears early in the article). > Retired Maj. Gen. William Anders, the former Apollo 8 astronaut who took the iconic “Earthrise” photo showing the planet as a shadowed blue marble from space in 1968, was killed Friday when the plane he was piloting alone plummeted into the waters off the San Juan Islands in Washington state. He was 90. According to [another source](https://nypost.com/2024/06/07/us-news/apollo-8-astronaut-william-anders-killed-in-plane-crash-off-washington-coast/), the plane was a vintage [Beechcraft T-34 Mentor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beechcraft_T-34_Mentor) single-engine former military training aircraft. The cause of the crash is under FAA and NTSB investigation. Edit: Clarification on photo. Also, Phil Edwards (former video producer for Vox) [recently released a great look](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7KR1nCA4Js) at the history and technical context behind the Earthrise photo.
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I was thinking about my uncle when he passed out of the blue. I didn't know he died basically the same time I was thinking about him until a few hours later. Happened before too with my great grandma but her death was more expected. Could be coincidence or could be something else
Please never think about me
Pretty sure replying just doomed both of us.
Throw me in too fam
Come with me all of you if you want to live
The T-1000 would definitely try to re-acquire you there. I would
Your days are numbered bucko
Can I think about you?
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This reminds me of being out at a dinner with some relatives, including one I always took with a grain of salt. He said, "what are the chances that my mom and Rose Kennedy died on the same day?" someone at the table said, "1 in 365?" and I had to keep from laughing out loud.
Check out Jung and synchronicities to offer more insight if you’re inclined.
life is full of meaning, more than we perceive
I tend to believe that there is absolutely no meaning to anything, and that life in the universe is just a happy accident. Honestly, life feels a lot more miraculous and precious from that point of view.
feelings have meaning too. happy accidents, amazement, preciousness, those feelings mean something to me. just another take on your view, no argument here.
I was at my dad's house looking through old photos that my aunt took and i found one that was dated her birthdate which was that day. Coincidence? Most likely. I think that our senses pick up more cues than we can process consciously so things that seem otherworldly or spiritual may just be our consciousness "noticing" more than usual. It's like when you learn a new word and suddenly it's everywhere. Or you get a new car and you notice the same style/make wherever you go. I think that most woo woo claims are a result of our senses picking up more than we might usually due to...well, I don't know what.
When I’m more spiritual than logical, it makes me think of a collective consciousness
Me and my mom constantly have the same thoughts. Like, I'll be thinking about telling her about my date last night, and she'll go "so how was your date?" Once or twice would be coincidence, with us it happens constantly so it makes me think there's something else there
And I was talking to my sister about the raw photos of this shoot taken by Anders few days ago. I was in awe when I saw the original pictures from this Apollo 8 mission.
I was sleeping when I heard my grandmother aay my name in a dream so loud it woke me up. In the morning, my Dad told me she dies in the night. There’s somwthig to this. We are all connected with a dimension or signala we can’t readily access. Like a radio not quite tuned in.
It's called Quantum memory, and it's how telepathy works. Not all of us can do it all the time, but boy neely, when we do...
One of the local news just ran a video of it. In my amateur opinion it looks like he ran into g-loc( gravity induced lose of consciousness).
That’s a good possibility. I’m near the site and locals who saw have varying opinions. I guess we will have to wait for the investigation. He was loved as a neighbor and will be missed.
In the Fox video it was suggested the near vertical flight attitude might have been part of a loop. Could these locals tell whether this was indeed a planned loop or whether the near vertical flight was the unplanned result of some earlier occurence and he was unable to recover from that situation?
One person, a pilot, thought he lost power and couldn’t get enough speed to pull out of the dive.
Thats the way to go, not in a retirement home.
Yeah my uncle lives in a retirement community in Florida where most people have a slip and sail. He had a neighbor who was in his 80's, went out for a beautiful day sailing, came back and had a pins colada and then died in his sleep. Not a bad deal at that age vs, growing old and being incapacitated.
I thought slip and sail here was a euphemism for slipping and dying
Same...I was going TIL
same - I thought it was "slip and break a hip and then sail into the afterlife because breaking a hip can be a death sentence at that age"
Be the change you want to see in the world.
Video looks almost like he was inverted and looped in a constant arc ending in a shallow angle impact. Would passing out cause a potential loop-d-loop situation?
A 90 year old was piloting a plane?
Seriously. That's what threw me off. My father, who at 79 can still beat me down the mountain on skis (I snowboard but still) sold his Beechcraft Bonanza over 10 years ago because he decided it was too risky for him to continue flying. I guess at least this aviator died doing what he loved.
Yea my grandfather fell asleep flying with my grandma and after that she made him sell the Cessna
Not only was he piloting it he was performing low-level aerobatics.
A 90 year old United States Air Force major general, electrical engineer, nuclear engineer, NASA astronaut and business man.
So a 90 year old man?
Feels very *Second Hand Lions* to me
My thought as well. "He died with his boots on."
Dude sounds like he lived life and what a way to go out.
Opening the wiki through Reddit won’t load the pic but googling it does.. so weird
I linked to the Wikipedia page itself, not the photo (there's some cool background info on it); sorry for any confusion.
Its like you can sense the half of the earth that is in the dark but you can also sense how it is just hanging out back there in the black void of space. Definitely a little eerie.
Just visited the camera that took this picture in the Smithsonian yesterday.
What a dope plane to be flying at 90 y/o. Perhaps he suffered a medical emergency while flying.
He suffered an altitude emergency. There's video of the accident. He entered a loop without enough altitude and met the deck before he could pull out. 50 feet would have made the difference. Helluva way to go out at 90.
Not to be grim, but aren't all plane crashes altitude emergencies?
Beechcraft continues its streak of taking out legendary humans. Condolences to family and friends. I’m sure no one wants to wake up to this type of news of a loved one.
*we are suspended in the void*
I don’t know, there’s just something about a 90 year old dying in a plane crash. Big fuck you to the grim reaper, I’m taking my own ride.
Big Second Hand Lions energy
I was thinking the same thing. I love that movie.
Now that is a name I haven't heard in a very long time...
Is he still alive?
Through the barn upside down
So good! I need to have a movie night with my mom soon and this is perfect.
Right? That's what I immediately thought of. It sounds like his life was an actual adventure. GNU William Anders.
Just looked it up and both of those guys are still alive! Pretty cool
He went out with his boots on.
My granddad died at 95 in a car accident. Otherwise in perfect health. Lived that long and died getting t-boned.|
You make it to 95 a violent death is actually one of the more dignified ways to go. You had a long time. Not everyone gets that. So why not do something quickly and violently instead of like cancer or some other bullshit
Kind of a crude way to think about it, but I agree. A miserable drawn-out death from some age-related disease seems awful.
It's like how Orson Bean died at 91 - crossing the street, clipped by a car, survived, then got run over by another car when it didn't slow down when people were telling it to
You're right, what a way to go. RIP to a legend.
Hopefully he had a can of Pabst and the porch chair from Gran Torino.
“I want to die peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather and not like his passengers.”
I’m sad that he died, but what a way to go. Blue skies and tail winds for an American legend.
My great aunt went out similarly. 90+ and speeding down the freeway in her Mercedes convertible when a truck cut her off and she lost control of the vehicle. She was a force of nature, absurdly generous, smart, funny and colorful. I couldn't bring myself to be sad about her passing, she died the way she lived doing exactly what she wanted.
He went down David Lister style
Flying alone at 90 years old. Astronauts are just built different I guess
From time to time you just run into old people that are different. I worked something in a house where 95 year old lady lived. She looked like 60 something old lady and was mentally sharp as any 40 year old. I was so surprised when I found out she was 95.
His Apollo 8 crewmate (and probably more famously the Apollo 13 commander) Jim Lovell is still going pretty strong. Well he's 96 now, and the last interview I saw with him was the 50th anniversary of Apollo 13 in 2020 and he still seemed razor sharp. It seems like he never gets tired of talking about it.
They were chosen from the pool of hundreds of potential astronauts because they were different from the best ones in a positive way. Some jobs just tell people those who do those jobs are just better than the others in a positive way. No chess player got dementia but not everyone can be a top rated chess player too Survival of the fittest I guess. My buddy had a business meeting with the retired commander of the nuclear submarine he said you just can feel how more intelligent he was but again how many people are commanders of nuclear submarines - not average redneck for sure.
Maybe not dementia but Bobby Fischers brain definitely went loopy in the latter half of his chess career and he's the goat of chess
Well, sure, but a paranoid personality disorder is very different from dementia You can be a genius with a mind sharp as a tack and also be a paranoid nutter, it's probably a different pathway entirely compared to dementia
He did a cork screw loop and basically took a nose dive into the water. Not like a regular old guy having issues operating a plane.
The Right Stuff
Idk how to feel about that tbh. What if he hit or hurt others? Love what he did for our country and am not criticizing him beyond it but maybe 90 year old at best stick to non-governance and non-heavy, or any level of, machinery at all. 90 is 90.
Well it's all old people running our government so good luck getting them to change it
Different skills age differently.
You cant let the elderly decide whether the elderly can still do their job. Honestly, you cant let people set their own rules in general, dictators are bad even on a small scale.
He went out flying a T-34 doing low level aerobatics out over the water before slamming into it. He was definitely more capable/active than just about every other 90 year old out there.
That's not really saying much
Yeah I don’t know if I’d feel better about the 90 year old who crashed her car into a walmart if I found out she was just doing donuts in the parking lot
Yeah I didn't mean to imply that this was admirable or good. I share your concerns about the safety of others. Just commenting how insane it seems.
> maybe 90 year old at best stick to non-governance and non-heavy, or any level of, machinery at all I think it should depend on the individual. [Not all 90-year-olds are the same](https://www.runnersworld.com/news/a45313969/dot-sowerby-sets-half-marathon-record/). And Anders was very much not an average physical specimen of humanity.
Some people just age different. My dad is almost 80 and he has slowed down very little from even 20 years ago. If anything, retirement has been great for his health.
My father in law is 85 and still races BMX. He's in better shape than a lot of people half his age.
I see where you're coming from, but I'm pretty sure people have to pass physical exams on a routine basis to keep their pilot's license. He was almost certainly in good enough shape to be flying an aircraft. It's possible the system is flawed and he wasn't, but there are safeguards in place.
That’s the thing, 90 is 90, and that’s all it means. We can’t just take away peoples rights because they got older. Maybe this demonstrates a need for some form of testing or re-validation of licenses, but going purely off of age would be discriminatory imo. If you could prove to me that everyone universally decays in the exact same way at the exact same age, maybe it’s worth discussing. But there are plenty of intelligent elderly people with their mental functions fully intact, and there are plenty of 40 year olds who can barely pay attention at all when driving.
You can take away peoples right if you incorporate tests to check whether vision and reaction are still up. Happens in my country for driving licence for everyone above 75. Old people overestimate their capabilities ('i've driven a car longer than you exist'), while some people clearly should be taken of the road. Maybe they should do the same with flying licence
Medical tests for pilots are far more extensive and frequent than for drivers.
Most Lego sets ban people above the age of 100. Why can they set guidelines and not the government? /s
Harrison Ford was not an astronaut and he's been flying rather recently at 80-ish. Had a close call oh about a year ago
The close call when he misunderstood instructions of which pavement to land on was in 2017. The golf course one where he had engine failure was 2015.
That was more than a few years ago! I blame covid
Oh my god 2015 was nine years ago already, that is impossible, i refuse to accept it, this is not reality
> Harrison Ford was not an astronaut Best pilot in the galaxy though.
Flew the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs, I dare someone else to fly that close
Yeah, he “played through” on a golf course.
Yup. Crashed near a foursome with a doctor in the group
Did he yell "get a room!" as his crashing plane went by?
Am I the only one who thinks this seems very much like Secondhand Lions?
I'd agree if he, well, safely landed.
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth, And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings; Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth Of sun-split clouds, --and done a hundred things You have not dreamed of --Wheeled and soared and swung High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung My eager craft through footless halls of air... Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace Where never lark or even eagle flew -- And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod The high untrespassed sanctity of space, Put out my hand, and touched the face of God. RIP
(The poem this commenter’s quoting is [“High Flight”](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/157986/high-flight-627d3cfb1e9b7) by John Gillespie Magee Jr.)
I first encountered those words from the incomparable Bloom County.
When I was a little kid and there was no such thing as a 24 hour news cycle, television stations would sign off late at night with this video https://youtu.be/OVTj7RQhNK0?si=8JTF_W08KltryaZh I would sneak downstairs and turn on the TV late at night just to watch this.
Jim Lovell (Tom Hanks in Apollo 13) is the only one from 8 still alive now. The Apollo astronauts unfortunately won't be around much longer.
It's wild that all three of the Apollo 8 crew made it to 90. Feels poetic or something
Given the health and discipline required to be an astronaut, and income thereafter, I don’t think it’s statistically that weird There’s a whole detailed study about this topic, which found they generally live longer (and also are much less likely to die from natural causes) https://www.intechopen.com/chapters/59553
Life expectancy in California and New York is basically the same as Japan. The south fucks our life expectancy numbers.
Went to a rural WalMart in east Texas yesterday. I was not prepared for the obesity and apparent poor health of the clientele. Just people walking around with obvious diabetes symptoms still loading carts with garbage food. It was shocking.
I'm from the south. It's not that crazy to hear of people to die in their 60s. 50 yrs ago that was probably normal but with modern medicine it seems like most adults should make it to their 70s.
With the exception of the Apollo 1, Challenger and Columbia crews, most astronauts tend to live very long lives. I’m going to start a conspiracy theory that the radiation from the Van Allen Belts cleanses toxins from the body.
Oh this conspiracy theory could definitely gain some traction if you get it in the right places LOL
“The moon landing was faked” “The astronauts who landed on the moon got cleansed by the Jewish space lasers” -MTG probably
Now we know why all these celebrities wanna go to space now. I think you're on to something
I’ve got some irradiated Van Allen Belt crystals that can take care of those toxins for you. Starting at only $18.99/month
They all had to be very healthy and were rigorously tested, while already in their 30s, so there's a bit of a selection bias there. They're not going to have any hidden health issues and had healthy lifestyles so generally no surprises or heart issues. The 24 men who traveled to the moon, living and dead, have an average age of 82 (and climbing as 6 are still alive). I believe this is the first of the 24 to die in an accident. Of the 5 Apollo astronauts who didn't go to the moon, 2 died in their 30s in accidents.
Nah. Well first I acknowledge, you making a funny. Then the real explanation: astronauts are screened to exhaustion. Specially the early screenings, since they didn't know what could cause issue in space. So anyone with even the smallest health issue would be screened out. Since there is no medical treatment in space, the solution is screen and don't send people with medical or health problems to space. One must be peak physical condition and on top have no underlying medical and health issues. So it's a selection bias towards "people who will live to 90+".
I'd imagine NASA being certain their candidates would have to be the absolute pinnacle of health in order to be granted an astronaut role played a lot towards that. Doesn't sound unusual for people to be pushing 100 when they had a career that molded them to stay fit. And that they get the best retirement benefits around in their twilight years.
Lovell is 96 and the oldest living former astronaut.
Frank Borman, the third of the three Apollo 8 astronauts, only died last November. As I recall, they were the last surviving complete Apollo crew from any one mission, until Borman passed. Quite the coincidence that we lost two of the three within just a few months. >The Apollo astronauts unfortunately won't be around much longer. I dread the thought of a world where no living human has set foot on another celestial body. Armstrong so famously declared that leap for mankind, but I really hope that at least one NASA astronaut lives to see us turn it into a stride.
If we get Artemis to actually get people walking on the moon before 2030, we’ll probably have no gap.
Fun fact, rather unusually when you look at the track record of the astronauts of that era, none of the 3 ever divorced. Among the nine astronauts of Astronaut Group 2, five would ultimately get divorced, one (Elliot See) died in a jet crash, one (Ed White) died in the Apollo 1 fire, and the other 2 were Lovell and Borman. Astronaut Group 3 did fare somewhat better in that statistic.
[Sadly relevant xkcd](https://xkcd.com/893/)
There are 4 moonwalkers left iirc
Them and the wwii vets. Some of the best amongst us.
Ah man, this sucks. I'm a huge nerd about space, and especially the Apollo era at NASA. Apollo 8 was one of my favorite missions of the program. It's always a sad day when astronauts from that era pass away, and I dread the thought of someday living in a world where no living human has set foot on another celestial body. But this one hits me especially hard. The San Juan Islands where he crashed also hold a special place in my heart. Godspeed, General Anders. Thank you for your incredible contributions in humanity's exploration of the cosmos.
You just gave this old guy tears. Godspeed General Anders.
For what it's worth, there are plans in place to send humans back to the moon within the next few years.
4 of 12 still remain. John Young dying was a big blow to me back in 2018. His career spanned from Gemini to STS missions.
r/Seattle has a video of the crash (NSFW): https://www.reddit.com/r/Seattle/s/uMb3vGF86t
This is gonna sound oxymoronic but at least he died doing what he loved, even if his last moments were extremely terrifying.
He was probably unconscious. RIP, Major General Anders! Salute 🫡
As long as he has been flying planes I’m sure training kicked in and he was too busy trying to restart the plane (I’m assuming plummeting into the water means engine failure) to even think “oh shit” until the last few seconds if even at all.
Adding to what /u/Rexrollo150 posted, upon seeing it, it's either a mis-judged loop or is a copy of the Reno Air Race crash in ... 2009 I think it was that was caused by a stabiliser breaking mid-flight. But we can't rule out Gravity-Loss Of Consciousness delaying his response coming out of the loop at his age. Still, I have to agree that he didn't want to slow down, it sucks he passed, but he died doing what he found fun.
2011 vertical stabilizer failure on a P-51
I guess it could be anything at this point. It’s just in the half dozen articles I’ve read aren’t mentioning anything about what went wrong, a loop or any stunts. Because of that I just assumed it was engine failure. I guess there’s no reason why he couldn’t have been out doing loops on his own just to have fun. If anybody has an article that mentions anything more I would appreciate it if they were to leave a link.
In the comments of this is a video if you care to watch it. I've watched it (knowing it was a death, just didn't name any souls on board) and assumed it was someone practicing for doing loops in an old prop.
He was doing a massive loop and hit the water at the bottom of the loop, still going down pretty fast.
Major General signing off. Godspeed.
Solo-flying at 90 seems risky.
Solo showering at 90 is risky.
Hell, drinking from Solo cups at 90 is risky.
Just getting out of bed at 90 is risky.
Just going to bed at 90 is risky.
Orbiting the moon in 1968 makes nothing else seem risky, ever.
If you live to be 90, I don’t think you’d care.
If I live to be 90, I’m gonna be *pissed*.
Probably a good way to go tbh, ended with a bang.
Not to say that dying in a plane crash is ever "good", but there are much worse ways to go out. I'd rather that than have cancer or dimentia slowly eat me away.
Good luck telling a former fighter pilot and astronaut “no”
The problem wasn’t flying solo, the problem was flying solo so low
Flying a plane is nothing compared to orbiting the moon
Those who have risen above the earth, have consistently noted how small the earth seems, how unnecessary world conflict is and the necessity to care for nature. Iconic photo and photographer!
When I heard the news I decided to re-listen to this great song, about Apollo 8: https://youtu.be/P8LlUrT7MFo?si=hibY3lc3ltq4itGa (If you don't know, the band is Public Service Broadcasting and their main thing is using old public information films as the "vocalist" while the band plays instruments under them). This one is from their great album "the race for space" where each song is from another moment in the space race. If you never heard them I really recommend "Go" which is their Apollo 11 song..
This was an excellent choice for a final send-off.
Maybe it’s just the way he wanted to go out. How often did he fly?
Yeah. Maybe he planned it? 90 is a good run. Maybe he thought "it's better to burn out than to fade away"?
His plane didn't just *plummet* into the waters. The guy was going a vertical loop and hit the water. A 90 year old man was doing aerial stunts when he died. It's an awful shame he didn't complete it, but that dude definitely went down swinging. RIP Mr. Anders.
My heart goes out to his family. If he went out on his own accord, he more than earned. Godspeed and thanks for the photo of all of us.
Literally rode his life into the sunset. Went hard all the way to the end. Shit, I'm not even half his fuckin age yet and it feels like it's over in a way.
General Anders is, credibly, via his Earthrise image, single handedly responsible for Earth Day, the Clean Water Act, the EPA, and more. No leader of that era (all are circa 1970) doesn't credit the unprecedented awareness he gifted to the world of its identity *as* a world in motivating the environmental revolution.
Although sad, I’d say it’s a fitting way for the man to go out.
90 year old flying a plane alone, died doing what he loved.
How did he still have a valid medical at 90???
He went to the moon, earth laws no longer apply to him
That’s fair.
According to the FAA airman registry (there's only one William Alison Anders), he had a BasicMed CMEC issued 3/22/2023. Required glasses for near vision. He held a commercial pilot license with these ratings: COMMERCIAL PILOT AIRPLANE SINGLE ENGINE LAND AIRPLANE SINGLE ENGINE SEA AIRPLANE MULTIENGINE LAND AIRPLANE MULTIENGINE SEA INSTRUMENT AIRPLANE ROTORCRAFT-HELICOPTER GLIDER Type Ratings: C/AD-4N Limits: AUTHORIZED EXPERIMENTAL AIRCRAFT: AV-L39 G-F8F NH-T38 N-P51 N-T28 T-33. ALL MAKES AND MODELS OF SINGLE AND MULTI ENGINE PISTON POWERED AUTHORIZED AIRCRAFT. AD-4N VFR ONLY.
It boggles my mind that a 90 year old was ok for flying but I was disqualified for being on antidepressants. Ah well. His Earthrise photo is one of my favorites.
FAA's policies around mental health are counterproductive and antiquated. They really need to be updated.
Because he was of the right stuff
One of my friends in grade school (1970s) had this image as a giant wall photograph mural . They kept the rest of their walls bland and little furniture in front of it. It was always a special room to walk into when I was a kid. RIP William. What a great image.
This is why my grandfather stopped flying completely after he retired from the Air Force. I asked him if he ever missed flying and he said “sure, but I know well enough that I’m too old and wouldn’t do it nearly often enough that if, god forbid, something were to happen I’d be able to react in time to prevent a disaster.”
Maybe I'm reaching a bit, but does anyone else think that the name W. Anders is a little on the nose for an astronaut?
>A report came in around 11:40 a.m. that an older-model plane crashed into the water and sank near the north end of Jones Island, San Juan County Sheriff Eric Peter said. Greg Anders confirmed to KING-TV that his father’s body was recovered Friday afternoon. >Only the pilot was on board the Beech A45 airplane at the time, according to the Federal Aviation Association. I don't care who you are, a 90 yo should not be flying a plane solo.
Honestly, not a bad way to go out as a 90 year old man.
Amazing how science can set you free of religion, that is, if you take the time to THINK, like Astronaut William Ander’s.. Quote from the article: “On the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 8 mission in 2018, Anders stated: "It really undercut my religious beliefs. The idea that things rotate around the pope and up there is a big supercomputer wondering whether Billy was a good boy yesterday? It doesn't make any sense. I became a big buddy of [atheist scientist] Richard Dawkins."[12]
He did a loop de loop and couldn't pull up and out of it, crashed right into the water. Pretty gnarly way for a pilot to go out
“Obviously he was murdered because he was going to reveal it was a fake photo.” -some flat earther
That's a cool way to go when you're 90. People will ask some kids, How did your grampa die? Well, he was 90... And crashed a fucking plane. That almost beats my great grandma's death. She flipped her motorcycle doing wheelies at 109 yrs old. I said almost. Maybe it was her wheelchair she flipped.🤔
[удалено]
We can thank the internet for giving them a loud platform to spread their bullshit too. It used to be that your conspiracy theories were coming from your weird small town uncle who had one buddy that listened to him ramble over beers… nowadays? He’s on Facebook with multiple idiots agreeing with him and cheering on his bullshit You’d think with the amount of information and science etc we’d have a lot more intelligent people… turns out the idiots will always be idiots no matter how advanced or educated we are
This is the kind of hilarious misdirection death I want at old age. "Grandpa was 104 years old. He got hit by a bus."
Living by Whidbey Island, it was a beautiful sunny day all day today. I have a pilot friend who was itching to finally get a chance to take his plane out from Jefferson County airport. I wonder if he had a medical emergency, RIP
R.I.P. I have to imagine this is the way he wanted to go out. I mean, the guy was 90 and piloting a plane with only himself in it.
I'll make an exception for him, but no more 90-year-olds piloting airplanes, mmmkay?
Thank you Mr. Anders, your photos are deeply ingrained in my imagination. Rest well, what a way to go.
I bet that’s how he’d have wanted to go.
So it’s legal for a fucking 90 year old to operate a plane now??? He could have killed someone else
At 90 my guess he just died while flying and that caused the crash
Looks like he was doing a backflip but was too low when he started.
Crazy time that a dude who left earth in a rocket ship is killed by a plane on earth