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I once met Bill Anders on Orcas Island. Years ago I was making a video about describing a stone that I found on an Orcas beach, and I was consulting with geolo

I once met Bill Anders on Orcas Island. Years ago I was making a video about describing a stone that I found on an Orcas beach, and I was consulting with geologists and biologists. I met at a local cafe with a marine biologist to get her opinion about barnacles on the stone. As we were talking, a man at the next table mentioned that he thought the stone was possibly volcanic. He also said he had a petrologist friend I should talk to. Nice coincidence. The guy said his name was something-something... I'm not good with names and pretty much forget them instantly. Later, I'm with the biologist on the beach, looking at barnacles when a P-51 Mustang comes screaming overhead on a low pass over the island. I lived on Orcas and I had never seen that before. "Oh, that's Bill Anders," said the biologist. "Remember, you met him at the Orcas Hotel cafe. He was on Apollo 8." That made a lot of sense. The Apollo astronauts were trained field geologists! I suspect his crash was a suicide. I come from a flying family and this is how pilots commonly fantasize about dying on their own terms.

iamtheworstdev 2y ago
> I suspect his crash was a suicide. I wouldn't count on that. Most of us wouldn't do that to the aviation world. Decreases plane availability, especially for something like a T-34 Mentor, increases insurance rates, increases FAA stance on already asinine policies, etc. occams razor - he misjudged his aerobatics.
- gcheong 2y ago
  Unless you leave a note or tell someone, could the FAA determine it was intentional? Given the type of aircraft could a pilot plausibly commit suicide in a way that made it look like pilot error?
  - sokoloff 2y ago
    Absolutely could be done undetectably/unprovably. There is often no conclusive root cause for a pilot error event. If that “error” was intentional, it would be very hard to prove.
- satisfice 2y ago
  If you hang out with pilots, I'm sure you've heard them fantasize about this as a good way to die. It doesn't happen much in real life, although there are a few incidents that have been in the news that were clearly suicides. It's not really plausible that he misjudged the altitude. His altitude for that maneuver was about 2000 feet lower than it should have been. I've also flown a T-34 (my dad owned one on Orcas Island... I kind of wonder if Bill bought his from Dad) and did some aerobatics around Orcas. We were at much higher altitude.
  - iamtheworstdev 2y ago
    > few incidents that have been in the news that were clearly suicides. i only know of two - one was a stolen plane by a mechanic or ground crew, not a pilot. the other was a mass murder, not a fantasized suicide.

iamtheworstdev 2y ago

> I suspect his crash was a suicide. I wouldn't count on that. Most of us wouldn't do that to the aviation world. Decreases plane availability, especially for something like a T-34 Mentor, increases insurance rates, increases FAA stance on already asinine policies, etc. occams razor - he misjudged his aerobatics.

gcheong 2y ago
Unless you leave a note or tell someone, could the FAA determine it was intentional? Given the type of aircraft could a pilot plausibly commit suicide in a way that made it look like pilot error?
- sokoloff 2y ago
  Absolutely could be done undetectably/unprovably. There is often no conclusive root cause for a pilot error event. If that “error” was intentional, it would be very hard to prove.
satisfice 2y ago
If you hang out with pilots, I'm sure you've heard them fantasize about this as a good way to die. It doesn't happen much in real life, although there are a few incidents that have been in the news that were clearly suicides. It's not really plausible that he misjudged the altitude. His altitude for that maneuver was about 2000 feet lower than it should have been. I've also flown a T-34 (my dad owned one on Orcas Island... I kind of wonder if Bill bought his from Dad) and did some aerobatics around Orcas. We were at much higher altitude.
- iamtheworstdev 2y ago
  > few incidents that have been in the news that were clearly suicides. i only know of two - one was a stolen plane by a mechanic or ground crew, not a pilot. the other was a mass murder, not a fantasized suicide.