Bluffton man with ‘enormous love for life’ killed in plane crash on son’s 3rd birthday
Erik Anderson died just as he lived his life — on an adventure.
Anderson, 33, of Bluffton died in a plane crash on Friday as he was heading toward an island for an epic fishing adventure on the West Coast of Canada. The former Marine Corps combat photographer was known as a “fearless adventurer,” with “an enormous love for life,” his friend and former Parris Island coworker, Christa Weil, said.
“He was so full of adventure and life,” his wife, Nicole Peacock Anderson, told the Island Packet. “He had checked so much off his ‘bucket list’ from skydiving, scuba diving, surviving shark attacks, to having a family.”
Anderson’s adventures made headlines in the Island Packet in 2014, when he came face-to-face with a shark while diving and spearfishing off the coast of Hilton Head Island. He caught the whole thing on video and didn’t flinch as the predator approached him.
Anderson told the Island Packet at the time that sharks aren’t out for humans, but “just trying to make a living.”
“I think we all assumed he’d be eaten by a shark one day,” Weil said jokingly. “So it’s shocking, but not surprising that he went out, on his way to have a grand fishing adventure.”
Anderson was one of four people who died in a plane crash north of Vancouver Island around 11 a.m July 26, Global News reported. Five passengers survived the crash and were airlifted to the hospital. Two of those five suffered serious injuries, while three are in stable condition.
Anderson’s father was with him on the trip and survived the crash with serious injuries, according to Nicole Anderson. He is still recovering. They were 9 miles from their destination when the plane crashed.
The Cessna 208 plane, also known as a float plane, was traveling from Richmond, British Columbia, to “a remote fishing lodge on Calvert Island,” a Transportation Safety Board spokesperson told the Toronto Star. The pilot also died in the crash, the Vancouver Sun reported.
Erik and Nicole Anderson’s son, Sterling, turned 3 the day Anderson died. Erik Anderson had turned 33 the day before. Nicole Anderson said her husband’s relationship with Sterling “was something to behold.”
“He loved Sterling with the most full heart,” she said. “I see so much of (Erik) in my son and will watch a small version of him grow before me. I will love him forever”
Anderson was most known for his big, generous heart, Weil said.
“He never met a stranger, and he never said no when someone asked for help,” Weil wrote on Anderson’s Go Fund Me Page, set up for his wife and children. “Erik was the kind of guy who would give you his last shirt off his back, and then brag about how good of a tan he was going to get because of it.”
Anderson’s Go Fund Me page has been shared hundreds of times by those who knew him, including people from local businesses and communities he was a part of.
“We will miss seeing his smiling face and positive attitude at our trivia nights,” Southern Barrel Brewing Company wrote on Facebook. “This is a big loss for all that knew him.”
Anderson will also be remembered as “a man of true adventure who shared his passion and bettered his community through film,” another friend, Wyatt Glass, wrote.
His life of adventure was well-documented on his YouTube channel, where his shark encounters, spearfishing, and scuba diving excursions were viewed by thousands.
“He was an adventurer to the end, and he always said ‘if I die, I hope it’s something cool. I want to go out doing something I love,” Nicole Anderson said.
Transportation Safety Board officials in Canada are investigating the cause of the fatal float plane crash, CTV Vancouver Island News reported.
Anderson is the second Bluffton man to die in a plane crash in the past two months. In May, an 80-year-old Bluffton man died in a plane crash in Georgia.
This story was originally published July 30, 2019 at 6:23 PM.
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