Editing Samantha Smith (section)

==Death==
{{Main|Bar Harbor Airlines Flight 1808}}
On August 25, 1985, Smith and her father were returning home aboard [[Bar Harbor Airlines Flight 1808]] after filming a segment for ''Lime Street''. While attempting to land at [[Auburn/Lewiston Municipal Airport|Lewiston-Auburn Regional Airport]] in [[Auburn, Maine]], the [[Beechcraft Model 99|Beechcraft 99]] commuter plane struck some trees {{convert|4007|ft|m}} short of the runway and crashed, killing all six passengers and two crew on board.<ref>{{cite web |publisher=Aviation Safety Network Database |url=http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19850825-0 |title=Accident report, 25 AUG 1985 |access-date=February 25, 2008}}</ref> Much speculation regarding the cause of the accident circulated afterwards. Accusations of foul play circulated widely in the Soviet Union.<ref>{{Cite news |title=The Great War of Words |last=Thomas |first=Evan |work=Time Magazine |date=September 9, 1985 |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,959791-1,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081202041815/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,959791-1,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 2, 2008 |access-date=February 28, 2008}}</ref> A CIA report written in 1985 reads: “Although no direct allegations of foul play have appeared in the Soviet media, people from ordinary citizens to intellectuals seem to believe that Samantha was silenced so that she could not continue her efforts to build goodwill toward the Soviet Union”.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2010 |title=Soviet rumor has Samantha Smith killed by CIA |url=https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP90-00552R000605700070-8.pdf}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=Washington talk: U.S.-Soviet relations; Commonality at an Exhibition |work=The New York Times |date=December 7, 1987 |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DEFD8103EF934A35751C1A961948260 |access-date=February 29, 2008}}</ref> An investigation was undertaken in the United States and the official report—which did not show evidence of foul play—was made public. The report said the plane crashed one mile (1.6&nbsp;km) south-west of the airport at 22:05 [[Eastern Daylight Time|EDT]], and concluded that "the relatively steep flight path angle and the [[Yaw, pitch, and roll|attitude]] (the orientation of the aircraft relative to the horizon, direction of motion etc.) and speed of the airplane at ground impact precluded the occupants from surviving the accident".<ref>{{Cite book |date=September 30, 1986 |title=Aircraft Accident Report: Bar Harbor Airlines Flight 1808 Beech BE-99, N300WP Auburn-Lewiston Municipal Airport Auburn, Maine August 25, 1985 |publisher=National Transportation Safety Board |page=16 |url=http://libraryonline.erau.edu/online-full-text/ntsb/aircraft-accident-reports/AAR86-06.pdf |access-date=March 22, 2009}}</ref> The report also went on to say that it was a rainy night, that the pilots operating the aircraft were inexperienced, and an accidental, but not uncommon and not usually critical, ground [[radar]] failure occurred.<ref>{{cite news|title=Pilot Blamed in Samantha Death |date=September 30, 1986|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-09-30-mn-10310-story.html|newspaper=The Los Angeles Times |access-date=April 12, 2018}}</ref>

About 1,000 people attended Smith's funeral in [[Augusta, Maine]], and she was [[Eulogy|eulogized]] in Moscow as a champion of peace. Attendees included [[Robert Wagner]] and Vladimir Kulagin of the Soviet Embassy in [[Washington, D.C.]], who read a personal message of condolence from [[Mikhail Gorbachev]].<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/21040338/diplomat_actor_attend_rites/ |title=Diplomat, actor attend Samantha Smith's rites |last=<!--no byline--> |date=August 29, 1985 |work=The Sun |access-date=June 17, 2018 |agency=Associated Press |location=San Bernardino, California |page=A-14, Col. 1 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>

<blockquote>Everyone in the Soviet Union who has known Samantha Smith will forever remember the image of the American girl who, like millions of Soviet young men and women, dreamt about peace, and about friendship between the peoples of the United States and the Soviet Union.<ref>{{cite news |work=Time Magazine |title=Milestones: Samantha Smith |date=1985-09-09 |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,959775,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070317051103/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,959775,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=March 17, 2007 |access-date=2008-02-25}}</ref></blockquote> 

President [[Ronald Reagan]] sent his condolences to Smith's mother, in writing:

<blockquote>Perhaps you can take some measure of comfort in the knowledge that millions of Americans, indeed millions of people, share the burdens of your grief. They also will cherish and remember Samantha, her smile, her [[Ideal (ethics)|idealism]] and unaffected sweetness of spirit.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.samanthasmith.info/index.php/history |title=History: Samantha Reed Smith |publisher=samanthasmith.info |access-date=2013-05-25 |archive-date=2018-07-28  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180728040212/http://www.samanthasmith.info/index.php/history |url-status=dead }}</ref></blockquote>

The remains of Samantha and her father were cremated,<ref>{{cite web |author-last=Wallace |author-first=David |url=http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20092144,00.html |title=Still Mourning Samantha Smith, Robert Wagner Decides That His Lime Street Show Must Go on |work=People magazine |date=November 11, 1985 |volume=24 |issue=20}}</ref> and their ashes were buried at Estabrook Cemetery, [[Amity, Maine]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=McKennett |first=Hannah |date=June 30, 2019 |title=How This 10-Year-Old Girl Broke Through The Iron Curtain In The 1980s |url=https://allthatsinteresting.com/samantha-smith |access-date=September 29, 2023 |website=All That's Interesting |language=en-US}}</ref>