DEER HARBOR, Wash. — Everything about the day was typical, family and friends of Bill Anders said.
It was typical for him to take a plane from the Heritage Flight Museum he founded in Skagit County to fly his typical "Orcas run," past his previous home in the San Juan Islands. He texted a family friend, and former neighbor, who lived on Orcas Island, letting her know he would be flying by soon. That was typical, she told investigators.
It was all typical until it wasn't.
At about 11:40 a.m. on June 7, Anders' plane crashed into the Puget Sound waters of Deer Harbor. The latest preliminary report from the National Transportation Security Board (NTSB) shares new details about the minutes leading up to the fatal crash.
The new report said Anders’ son was working at the Heritage Flight Museum on the day of the crash and Anders, a NASA astronaut and accomplished pilot, told him he was heading out that morning for an “Orcas run,” a description he used for a route around the San Juan Islands that included a fly over his previous home.
Anders boarded the Beech A45 plane around 10:50 a.m. and sent a text to a family friend about 10 minutes later, stating he would soon be flying past her house around 11:40 a.m., the report said.
On the western shore of Orcas Island, the friend heard Anders' plane — a familiar sound from previous flyovers — and watched at 11:37 a.m. as he flew north along the shoreline.
She later told investigators Anders would usually do two flybys and while he sometimes rocks the airplane’s wings, “he never performed any kind of aerobatic maneuvers,” the report said.
Anders’ flew out of sight behind trees, but the friend heard, what she believed to be, the plane turning left to the south.
His airplane came back into view as it flew south, but the plane was flying higher than usual over the water, the report said. After the plane passed by the friend said she saw the left wing drop – and continue to descend toward the water where it crashed.
William "Bill" Anders, 90, was killed and his body was recovered a few hours later by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife dive team.
Another witness about a third of a mile away heard a vintage airplane flying by and went to his deck to see it, recording what would be its final moments.
Video showed the airplane turned upside down as if doing a loop, with its nose down and heading south.
“Over the next three seconds, the airplane had transitioned to an almost vertical dive,” the report states. While appearing to pull out of the drive, the airplane’s right wingtip struck the water and crashed going north.
The NTSB said the airplane’s fuselage was located about 1,700 feet west of the last radar in about 30 feet of water. Most of the plane’s wreckage was recovered from the area during the following week. The NTSB said it is under further investigation.