50th Anniversary of Fatal Phantom Tucson Jet Crash
Dec 20, 2014
50 years ago this week a Phantom Jet took off from Davis Monthan AFB, lost power, and crashed into the Food Giant on Alvernon south of 22nd St in Arizona. Four on the ground died.
There will be an EIS to bring the single-engine F-35 to D-M beginning this Spring.
Almost 11 years before an Air Force jet crashed in Tucson, barely missing a school, there was a similar crash with more devastating damage. The crash happened Dec. 18, 1967.
Note: The exact addresses of the homes hit were listed in the Star. The Morgue Lady has removed the numbers because if those addresses still exist, the people living there now are probably not the same families.
From the Arizona Daily Star, Tuesday, Dec. 19, 1967:
Plane Plows Into Tucson Shopping Center
15 FEARED DEAD IN FIERY CRASH
2 Homes Razed By Falling F4D Near Airbase
By KEN BURTON
Fifteen persons were believed killed last night and at least a dozen injured when a U.S. Air Force F4D jet crashed into the rear of a Food Giant store at the Cactus Shopping Center at E. 29th St., and S. Alvernon Way.
Capt. Ellis Franklin of the Tucson Fire Dept. said at press time this morning that he feared the death toll might reach 15.
Eight of the deaths were confirmed as still more bodies were being removed from the gutted store and homes to the rear of the market.
At least two houses to the rear of the shopping center complex were also destroyed as a fireball of JP-4 aviation fuel engulfed the area, creating a holocaust.
