American astronaut William Anders, who was a member of the Apollo 8 crew, died in a plane crash on Friday, his son, Greg Anders, told the Associated Press news agency.

The 90-year-old was piloting a small plane alone when it plummeted into the waters of the San Juan Islands in Washington state.

He is known for taking the iconic "Earthrise" photo showing the planet as a shadowed blue marble from space in 1968.

What do we know about the crash?

Footage purportedly showing the plane plunging from the skies in a steep dive before slamming into the water was shared on social media. 

The San Juan County Sheriff's Office said they received a call around 11:40 am (20:40 CEST) that "an older model plane was flying from north to south then went into the water and sunk."

According to the Federal Aviation Association, only the pilot, believed to be Anders, was on board the Beech A45 airplane at the time.

The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration were investigating the crash.

'Earthrise' photo sparked environmental movement

The "Earthrise" photograph was the first color image of Earth taken from space and is considered one of the most iconic images in modern history.

"Bill Anders forever changed our perspective of our planet and ourselves," Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, who is also a retired NASA astronaut, wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

NASA administrator, Bill Nelson, paid tribute to Anders saying he "traveled to the threshold of the Moon and helped all of us see something else: ourselves."

Anders himself said the photo was his most significant contribution to the space program,

"We'd been going backward and upside down, didn't really see the Earth or the Sun, and when we rolled around and came around and saw the first Earthrise," he said.

He also recounted how Earth looked fragile and seemingly physically insignificant from space yet was home.

"That certainly was, by far, the most impressive thing. To see this very delicate, colorful orb, which to me looked like a Christmas tree ornament coming up over this very stark, ugly lunar landscape, really contrasted."

The photo is credited with sparking the global environmental movement by showing how delicate and isolated Earth appeared from space.

km/lo (AP, Reuters)