1945 – Plane Crashes into Empire State Building
2009
Empire State Building Crash of 1945
Who could forget the horrific images of the airliners that crashed into the World Trade Center during the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001? Did you know that this was not the first time a sky scrapper in Manhattan was hit by an airplane?
It is July 28, 1945. America is toward the end of World War II. Lt. Colonel William Smith was piloting his B-25 Mitchell bomber towards Newark airport to pick up his commanding officer. Fog caused poor visibility for Smith.
Unable to see the top of the Empire State Building, Smith brought his plane lower to try to fly below the fog. When he came through, he found himself in the middle of Manhattan, surrounded by skyscrapers.
Reflex allowed him to quickly bank out of the way of several of the buildings narrowly avoiding colliding with them. He dodged one building, then another. Eventually, his luck ran out. Trying to pull up to avoid the unavoidable disaster that was to come, Smith’s bomber crashed into the Empire State Building between the 79th and 80th floors.
Smith and the other two crew members on board the bomber were killed instantly. Eleven other people in the building were also killed and more than two dozen people were injured. The fire that was ignited from the fuel on the plane was extinguished in less than an hour and most of the building was open again two days later on the next Monday.
One of the brighter legacies that lives on from this crash is the Guiness Book of World Records record for the longest survived fall in an elevator. Elevator operator Betty Lou Oliver survived a plunge of 75 stories inside of her elevator. Though she had suffered serious burns and serious injuries, she returned to work five months later.
Comments and corrections welcome.
Empire State Building – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Plane That Crashed Into the Empire State Building
Betty Lou Oliver – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
