Community Corner
'Lost' Records of 1973 Jet Crash Released
It took years, but Miami journalist Theo Karantsalis has obtained a copy of a U.S. government report on the crash of a Navy jet into the Tahoe Apartments on Central Avenue nearly four decades ago.
A Navy jet that plummeted into Alameda's Tahoe Apartments 39 years ago, killing 11 people, was traveling at a speed of about Mach one on impact, according to a U.S. government report released nearly four decades after the crash.
Miami freelance journalist Theo Karantsalis (Ted Karas) obtained the 98-page report on June 28, 2012 under the Freedom of Information Act. The Navy has said the record was missing and presumably lost in response to previous FOIA requests by journalists and private citizens over the years.
The crash, on the evening of Feb. 7, 1973, destroyed the four-story apartment building at 1814 Central Ave. and the resulting fire spread to three adjacent buildings.
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Although there was speculation soon after the accident that the pilot may have tried to light a cigarette while flying, thus touching off a fire that caused the crash, that isn't borne out by the newly released report, Karantsalis writes.
Karantsalis is a former Island resident and fourth-generation Alamedan who graduated in 1979 from Encinal High School, where he was known as Ted Karas.
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You may read Karantsalis' complete article on SpringyLeaks and a Feb. 7, 2012 Alameda Patch article about .
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