Apollo 8 astronaut and San Juan County resident William Anders, 90, was killed in a plane crash over Puget Sound in Washington on Friday afternoon, and the incident was caught on video.

Fox 13 reported that the plane — a viPntage Air Force T-34 Mentor, a small prop plane — belonged to Anders and that his friends said he was flying the plane when it crashed.

Video showed the plane smacking the water at a high rate of speed as he appeared to be trying to pull up. A large flame briefly erupted with a plume of black smoke.

“A Beechcraft T-34 Mentor crashed into the water near Roche Harbor, Washington, around 11:40 a.m. local time Friday, June 7. Only the pilot was on board,” the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said in a statement.

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“The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate,” the statement added.

His son, Greg Anders, said in a statement: “The family is devastated. He was a great pilot. He will be missed.”

WATCH:

🚨 BREAKING: Plane flown by Apollo 8 crew member William Anders crashed near Seattle. His condition is unknown.

Video: Phillip Person pic.twitter.com/NxP2O8aUAW

— Quick News Alerts (@QuickNewsAlerts) June 7, 2024

Apollo 8 Astronaut William Anders killed in plane crash near Orcas Island, WA this morning.

Credit: Katie Person pic.twitter.com/9ni2cgwROQ

— avgeekjake (@avgeekjake) June 8, 2024

The United States Coast Guard Northwest said that the crash happened between Orcas Island and Jones Island.

#BREAKING: @USCG units along with San Juan County Sheriffs are responding to reports of a plane crash between Orcas and Jones Island. Air Station Port Angeles and Station Port Angeles are on-scene conducting search and rescue efforts. Updates to follow.

— USCGPacificNorthwest (@USCGPacificNW) June 7, 2024

The New York Times reported that Anders flew on the first manned space mission to orbit the moon in 1968 and took the iconic “Earthrise” photo, which the newspaper said sparked “the modern environmental movement.”

During Apollo 8’s orbit around the moon on Christmas Eve, the crew read from the book of Genesis in a live telecast that was viewed by millions of people around the world.

The report noted that Anders was the first person in that telecast to read from scripture.

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the Earth,” he said while reading Genesis. “And the Earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.”

Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders, who is missing after his plane crashed near Seattle, took this famous photo, “Earthrise”, in 1968 pic.twitter.com/jelEIE4wyO

— BNO News (@BNONews) June 7, 2024

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) appears to be rising in former President Donald Trump’s search for who will be his vice presidential running mate during this fall’s election.

Cotton was not included in an ABC News report earlier this week that listed those who the Trump campaign reached out to for information.

A subsequent report from The Washington Post said that Cotton was among that top candidates who have been asked to submit paperwork.

“Senator Cotton stands out among the other candidates as a battle tested, serious minded lawmaker with exceptional fundraising skills,” a source close to Trump told The Daily Wire. “He’s a fighter that would round out the ticket in a way that is most likely to secure a victory in November.”

The New York Times said in a recent report that Cotton has “unexpectedly emerged as a top contender” in Trump’s search, a signal that Trump believes that experience and discipline will be key factors to regaining the White House.

The news comes as Cotton has taken his defense of the former president in interviews to new heights, including during a Sunday NBC News interview where he aggressively defended Trump against the prosecutions that he faces, his record as president, many of the claims that Trump has made, and Trump’s supporters who have faced what many have said are unfair prosecutions in cases related to the January 6 riot.

The Times said that Trump has privately praised Cotton as “a reliable and effective communicator in cable news interviews,” something that is a top tier quality that Trump seeks in people he surrounds himself with.

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He also admires Cotton’s military service and Ivy League education, the report said. Trump has liked the senator for years and had considered giving Cotton a top administration position in the past.

“The two men fostered a close relationship during their time in Washington. They worked closely on immigration issues and shared an affinity for the conservative populism fueling the Republican Party,” the report said. “Cotton’s presence on a presidential ticket could help reassure Republicans in the party’s dwindling traditional wing, particularly fellow foreign-policy hawks. Many of these Republicans remain undecided about a second term for Mr. Trump and might be put off by the selection of an inexperienced MAGA loyalist.”

Throughout his time in Washington, Cotton has made all the right enemies that could make him an appealing candidate for Trump.

In 2020, Cotton led the charge in raising awareness at the start of the coronavirus pandemic about a Chinese laboratory in Wuhan that had been conducting experiments on bats and that it was the likely source of the pandemic. Cotton was subsequently castigated by the media as it sought to cast his remarks as “fringe” conspiracy theories — even though many of the world’s leading scientists now believe that the pandemic originated from the Chinese lab.

Months later, as far-left extremists burned down cities and rioted across the U.S. following the death of George Floyd, Cotton penned a piece in The New York Times urging Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act to deploy the military to stop the billions of dollars in damage that the Black Lives Matter and Antifa extremists caused and the thousands of law enforcement officers whom they attacked.