Imagine a jet flying 400 miles per hour at 28,000 feet altitude plummeting to the ground in the middle of the Island, slamming into a multi-story apartment complex then bursting into flames.
For those who find that hard to fathom or think it's the plot line for a new action adventure film, you are either newcomers to the Island or too young to remember what for many Alamedans was a defining moment in their lives.
Locals of a certain age have stored the image of what happened Wednesday, Feb. 7, 1973 at 8:13 p.m. right next to their memories of the day President Kennedy was assasinated, John Lennon was gunned down and the Twin Towers fell.
For those who witnessed the deadly accident or saw its immediate aftermath, the crash of the jet into the four-story Tahoe Apartments at 1814 Central Avenue, smack dab in the middle of the Island, was a life-changing moment.
The plane that crashed was actually one of two U.S. Navy A-7E Corsair II jet interceptors that were flying together on a routine training flight to Sacramento from the Lemoore Naval Air Station in Fresno. (Yes, that's right, this was not a jet flying in or out of the former Naval Air Station Alameda as some have assumed over the years.)
The impact, explosion and ensuing fire destroyed the apartment house and spread to three adjacent apartment buildings.
The pilot and ten people on the ground were killed. Over two dozen more were injured.
(To get a sense of the size of the apartment it hit, you can see an aerial photograph of the Sycamore Apartments (Former site of Tahoe Apartments) here.)
A detailed and harrowing account of the crash can be found on this site of notable California aviation disasters. Here are some excerpts from that report:
"One of the jets, piloted by Lieutenant Robert Lee Ward, 28, inexplicably broke from the formation. Moments later, the pilot of the second Corsair, flight leader Lt. John Pianetta, noticed that Ward’s jet was no longer flying alongside his own aircraft and radioed Oakland Air Traffic Control that he had 'lost his wing man.'”
Pianetta was given permission to turn back to look for Ward’s Corsair and as he banked his aircraft to try to locate the missing jet, he witnessed a fiery explosion erupt far below, amidst the twinkling lights of the city of Alameda.
Lt. Ward’s jet, traveling at more that 400 mph, had plunged out of the nighttime sky at a steep angle and slammed into the four-story Tahoe Apartments building at 1814 Central Avenue in the center of the city....
Over the next several days, investigators sifting through the smoldering rubble determined that 11 people, including Lieutenant Ward, the jet’s pilot, had been killed in the disaster. Twenty-six other people were treated at nearby hospitals and eventually released....
A Navy board of inquiry, formed at the nearby Alameda Naval Air Station to investigate the crash, heard testimony from a number of witnesses, including two civilian metallurgists. One, Charles F. Choa, told the Navy board that he had found evidence of a cockpit fire involving the pilot’s oxygen hose, and that the in-flight blaze was “very near” Ward’s oxygen mask.
The second metallurgist, Mario Lara, told the panel that while performing lab tests, he had managed to create a similar blaze with a glowing cigarette. Lara testified that while a lighted match took too long to produce the type of blaze present in the Corsair’s cockpit, the burning cigarette touched off the oxygen hose “immediately.” Asked whether he could determine the cause of the fire, Lara said “any flame or spark” — although he did not specifically blame it on a lit cigarette.
You can listen to a detailed and compelling oral history of the event from former Alameda mayor Terry LaCroix at the California Digital Story Telling Project website.
Also look for more details on the Notable California Air Disasters website and on this aviation history site.
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Government records of 1973 Alameda jet crash “lost” By THEO KARANTSALIS Official records related to an investigation of an California jet crash have disaapeared. “The entire record is missing and presumed lost,” a U.S. Navy spokesman wrote, March 6, in response to a Freedom of Information Act request seeking a copy of the government's investigative report. Records related to the A-73E Corsair II jet crash, which occurred in Alameda, Calif., on February 7, 1973, were held at a long-term storage facility in Maryland. “To the extent that there were any pictures or documents concerning this incident in that file, they would have been lost with it," the report shows.
When I got there the building was on fire, people were running, screaming out of windows. I don't remember any emergency vehicles being there yet. As that point we could still watch from accross the street. Watch was all we could do. It got hot very fast and as we were standing there, the whole front wall of the building started to collapse. I don't remember exactly when emergency crews started to arrive, wasn't too many at this time. Like I said, it happened very fast. All of us across the street had to move way down the block because of the heat and what I came to learn later was the smell of burning flesh. I remember this clearly all these years later. I was 14.
I had just returned from Vietnam in 1971 and was stationed at NAS Alameda and upon discharge had hired on at the rework facility , on Feb 7, 1973 I was laid off and had gone to the base to get my tool box,that night and when I left I went down by the beach and was coming dowv Lincoln from Park St. at about 8:00 pm . I was stopped at the light a Lincoln and Chestnut when I heard a very loud roar that was so loud that I put my car in park and got out of my car because I thought something was going to hit me , and I look up and see this fire ball roarind out of the sky , which at the time I thought was a meteor , then I hear an explosion and a ball of fire , and I think wow, that was close . I drive down to Central and can see four floors exposed and burning and a woman screaming from the top floors , the front wall was leaning at almost a forty five degree angle and there was a woman on her knees by the front door . I was going to run and grab her but a neighbor tells me that wall is coming down don`t do it , and about that time a young man runs from around the corner and drags her off , Seconds later the whole front falls clear out to the sidewalk , the neighbor and me had to run across the street . My car that I parked across the street was trapped there for two days . I ended up staying in Alameda and have lived two blocks away for 33 years , and every time I walk by that builging I remember that day like it was yesterday. .
I couldn't charge him for the books.
I have never talked about this to anyone. and do not know if I can still today. The stench of burning flesh still today brings me to my knees. It has now been almost 40 years, and the memory seems like just yesterday. As I write this, the tears build in my eyes.
I was 10 years old when this happened watching Adam- 12 in our living room with my Mom and Dad we heard a loud screeching sound, then an explosion that actually shook our house on Broadway Street. When we looked out of our kitchen window we saw a huge fire ball rising into the sky, we then drove down to the scene. It was horrific. People screaming and total chaos. I remember watching the apartment falling down in flames. If I remember correctly I think they uses the cafeteria at our school .St Joseph's as a temporary crisis center and morgue for the victims. I was young but will never forget that night.
As the jet crashed less that a few miles from the base it was falsely reported in the news media that the jet was operating at NAS Alameda. It was just one of those things that the jet fell out of the sky and crashed near the base. Oscar ATC3
I was nine years old and talking on the phone, the old fashion kind that dialed and plugged in the wall. We lived in a large house in the Gold Coast with a long hallway designated specifically just for this activity, and I had taken out my hamster to let her run about a bit. Unfortunately I forgot all about her as I gabbed then suddenly remembered her. Just as I yelled out, "Tammy!!" the plane hit, rocking all 8,000 square feet of that house and sending a noise through the rooms that was loud even for a family with seven kids. I don't remember what I thought at that moment but we were all home alone, an especially rare occurrence as my parents never went out. I remember my brothers raced up the stairs to the attic where we had a great view of the flames about a half mile away. Sirens and explosions. Pretty exciting stuff for a little kid! We watched for a long time not knowing what had happened until the next day. I went to bed a sad little girl that night, not for the crash but for my hamster, Tammy, whom I never saw again!