The Blue Angels will always be a simmering debate in San Francisco.

Until the city’s dogs get organized enough to hire a lobbyist, the Navy precision flying team will almost certainly continue its multi-decade tradition of flying above and between our city’s landmarks during San Francisco Fleet Week.

But no modern controversy compares with the great Blue Angels panic of 1983, when six A-4 Skyhawk pilots surprised the city with a series of low-altitude San Francisco flybys that rattled windows and nerves. The coalition of enraged residents included Chronicle columnist Herb Caen, poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Mayor Dianne Feinstein, who got on the phone and ordered the planes grounded.

One elderly woman was so convinced that the U.S. was under attack, she broke her hip trying to escape danger. Another woman with a poodle “in a whining frenzy” reportedly left a note by her bedside, blaming the Federal Aviation Administration if she didn’t make it through the night.

“I thought it was the Russians coming when I heard the jets,” said Diane Comer, who at the time worked in the Financial District, where planes passed below some workers. “I thought Reagan had done something, and we were going to get it. But I didn’t hear anything on the radio and later someone said it was the Blue Angels.”

The problem occurred after the Blue Angels filed for a waiver to fly lower than their normal altitude — at the time 1,000 feet above the tallest building — but failed to notify City Hall.

The timing couldn’t have been worse for a “War of the Worlds”-style freakout in San Francisco. The planes arrived when terrorist attacks were becoming more common around the globe, and Russian/American nuclear war fears were near their pinnacle.

American pop culture was also approaching its peak “I hope the Russians love their children, too” era. For historical context, the controversy occurred one month before the film “The Day After” was released, and at the exact moment when the Russians-invade-America movie “Red Dawn” was being filmed.

In other words, not a great time to ambush the Bay Area with an unannounced military jet workplace flyby.

“I think the Navy’s Blue Devils bombed here yesterday,” Caen wrote. “Not literally, but their acrobatics over the city made you think of literal bombing — in Beirut and elsewhere. Given the havoc we are treated to daily on the TV screens, this would not seem to be the best times for jets to come hurtling past your window.”

Adding to the element of surprise: The Blue Angels hadn’t performed in San Francisco for two years, although they flew over Moffett Field in July 1983. (File under “Things that would never fly in 2018”: miles of Highway 101 near the airfield were closed on that day, and traffic was detoured during rush hour, so planes could fly low over the interstate.)

Feinstein, a S.F. Fleet Week supporter, became furious when her windows started rattling — and City Hall phone wouldn’t stop ringing.

“The mayor was concerned that so many people were frightened,” her spokesman said. “She got on the telephone with the Navy and ordered them to bring those planes down.”

A standoff never materialized. The Navy reported that the planes were already landing when Feinstein made her phone call. All seemed to be forgiven the next day, when the mayor showed up to Fleet Week wearing a yellow knit hat with “Go Navy” embroidered on the side.

Meanwhile, the debate continued in the letters pages of The Chronicle. One Telegraph Hill dweller reported the plane dipping so low, he could see the pilots’ faces.

Ferlinghetti had the best lines, reporting that in his North Beach neighborhood, he saw “people run for shelter as if bombs were falling.”

“As a former Navy man (four years sea duty during World War II) I certainly was impressed by the Navy’s own Blue Angels when they terrorized the population of San Francisco with aerial acrobatics,” Ferlinghetti wrote. “The Navy couldn’t have chosen a better way to demonstrate the horrors of modern warfare. The beauty of it was that they did it without firing a single shot.”

Peter Hartlaub is The San Francisco Chronicle’s pop culture critic. Email: phartlaub@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @PeterHartlaub