A Sabre jet crashed at The Junction in 1966

Remarkably, only one person died in the accident – 20-year-old pilot Warren Goddard.

A woman whose house was destroyed in the accident avoided injury because she was down the road at the shops.

Her neighbour, whose front yard was also razed, was in her backyard.

The main section of the plane crushed a car in a backyard between Glebe Road and Kenrick Street.

A crowd gathered, gazing in shock at the jet’s smouldering remains.

Some mystery remains around the cause and details of the crash.

The anniversary of the incident falls on Tuesday.

Paul Bennett told the Newcastle Herald he witnessed the crash when he was 15.

“We were in a car in Darby Street at the time,” Mr Bennett said.

“It was very bright and very loud and it looked like a giant skyrocket going off.

“It came screaming down.”

Peter Bennett said he was “driving along Glebe Road… with my brother Paul when the plane exploded above us”.

“We were extremely lucky not to be killed or injured as pieces of plane fell all around us,” he said.

“The pilot ejected from the plane and, because it was flying upside down, he went through the roof of the house opposite where we were.”

Accounts of whether the pilot ejected have differed over the years.

A previous report said the pilot was killed before he had a chance to eject.

In this version of events, his helmet landed on the roof of St Joseph's Convent and his watch was found on a supermarket roof.

Lambton’s Phil Mahoney, who posted the anniversary of the crash on Facebook, said it must have been a big shock “to see the plane coming down”.

Mr Mahoney said it was lucky more people weren’t killed.

Jacqui Sorby said on the Lost Newcastle Facebook page that she remembered the “tragic accident”.

“We lived not far from it, only a few blocks away,” she said.

“People were all collecting bits and pieces from the crash site and then they were told to return all they had taken.

“The noise was horrific. My dad was watching the TV and I remember him yelling at my sister and myself, telling us to stop slamming the doors!”

John Asquith recalled sitting at the “tea table” with his family in Maryville.

“I saw a flash [through the window] of what looked like sunlight on the wall I was facing,” he said.

“It wasn't till later we realised it was the flames from the Sabre jet going down.”

The jet, from Williamtown RAAF base, exploded about 100 metres above Union Street at 6pm on August 16, 1966.

Jets were not supposed to fly over Newcastle, so it was unclear how the trainee pilot ended up there.

Somehow, he struck trouble.

Retired Williamtown squadron leader Jim Treadwell said in 2006 the “trainee pilot was doing his first night flight and in no time at all found himself over Newcastle and very confused”.

“He went for a barrel roll to get out of trouble but basically ripped the wings off,” he said.

A coroner found nobody was to blame for the crash.