Lemoore Naval Air Station was first conceived in 1958 because the government was concerned that an aircraft crash might occur in the heavily populated areas surrounding Moffet Naval Air Station near Palo Alto, where jet bomber in the Pacific Fleet were stationed.  Commissioned in July of 1961, twenty jet attack squadrons were assigned to Lemoore from Moffet and NAS Alameda, mainly due to the establishment of a three mile "green belt" surrounding the base, located in northwestern Kings County and a portion of southern Fresno County.  This "green belt" placed extreme limits of development within its limits, reserving the land for exclusively farming purposes.

It was the evening of February 7, 1973, when two U.S. Navy A-7E Corsair II jet interceptors, assigned to Attack Squadron VA-195, were on a routine training flight to Sacramento from the Lemoore Naval Air Station located near Fresno, CA. 

One of these Corsairs was piloted by Lieutenant John B. Pianetta, the mission's flight leader.  Having served six years in the Navy, and flown combat in Vietnam, in November of 1971, he was on a night flight, simulating an attack when, removing a device used to cover the cockpit, he "inadvertently ejected" near Fallon, Nevada.  His jet soared unmanned for about an hour, flying across 400 miles of desert before crashing near Provo, Utah.

The other Corsair was piloted by Lieutenant Robert Lee Ward, 28. Having served in the Navy for nearly six years, and having been a flight instructor at Pensacola, Florida, he had been flying at Lemoore for just over a year.

Navy Lieutenant Robert Lee Ward, killed in the crash of his Corsair   An illustration of Ward's flight path down into the Tahoe Apartments in Alameda

"Has Anybody Seen My Wingman?" Forty-five minutes into the flight, as the two planes flew at 28,000 feet over the eastern San Francisco Bay area, one of the jets, piloted by Ward, suddenly abandoned its place on Pianelta's left and slid beneath him and out to his right more than 1,000 feet. It hung wavering, rocking its wings twice, and began a descending left turn. Seconds later, Pianetta noticed that his wingman's jet was no longer flying alongside his own aircraft.  He radioed the Oakland Air Traffic Control that he had “lost his wing man.” Pianetta was given permission to turn back to look for Ward’s Corsair.  He banked his aircraft around and descended down to 14,500 feet in an effort to try to locate the missing jet However, at 8:13 PM, a fiery explosion erupted far amidst the city lights of Alameda. Ward’s jet, traveling in excess of 650 knots, had plummeted down from of the nighttime sky at a steep angle, and slammed into the four-story Tahoe Apartments building, located at 1814 Central Ave in the center of the island city. The impact, explosion and ensuing fire destroyed the apartment house and spread to three adjacent apartment buildings as survivors ran into the streets, leapt from windows or slid down bed-sheets to escape the inferno.  The water pressure in the fire hydrants dropped to a low level because so many were in use by the scores of trucks which came from surrounding communities, but firemen kept the flames from spreading.  Nevertheless, the early causality figures were over 30 dead, as Alameda Mayor Terry Lacroix called it "the worst fire and holocaust ever in the city."

The Days After...

However, over the next several days, investigators sifting through the smoldering rubble determined that 11 people, including Lieutenant Ward, had been killed in the disaster.  In fact, one man, Gilbert Atencio, used the accident as an opportunity to evade criminal cocaine and bail-jumping charges he was facing.  He took his wallet, and burned it with a blowtorch, leaving the identification was undarmaged, and placed it at the crash site in order to make police and authorities think he had perished in the crash.  He was later captured.

Ward's remains, consisting only of bits of his flying suit, jersey, and his knee clipboard, were found in the hole formed by the aircraft in the basement of the Tahoe.  Almost nothing remained of the aircraft.  Twenty-six other people were treated at nearby hospitals and eventually released. 

But curiously, Ward's oxygen mask, hose, and parachute vest, were found under a pile of dirt at the crash site - dirt that would have prevented fire from reaching these after impact - indicating that the items were burned in a flash fire while the aircraft was aloft.

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 of them, Charles F. Choa, told the Navy board that he had found no evidence of structural failure of the aircraft before the crash, but had discovered 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 and plastic expert, Marvin 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. 

We are currently searching for photos of the crash site taken during the investigation. If you have any - please contact us.

The Crash Site Today

Today on the crash site is an apartment complex called "The Sycamore."  The address, 1814 Central Avenue, is not be be found on any of the current buildings.

There is no sign of the tragedy that took place on the site in 1973.  The only hint that sometime might be amiss is an empty space for a tree along the tree lined street at one end of the complex.  Thirty years is a long time. Plenty of time to hide the scars of that fateful evening.

Click here of a view of the entire building front.