It was a mess. Pure chaos. On July 28, 1945, New York City was wrapped in a fog so thick you could barely see your own hand in front of your face. People on the ground heard a roar. Not the usual city hum, but a bone-shaking, mechanical scream. Then, a boom that rattled the teeth of everyone in Midtown. A B-25 Mitchell bomber, lost in the soup, had just slammed into the 79th floor of the world’s tallest building.
Most people think of the Empire State Building as this invincible monolith, but that morning, it looked vulnerable. The Empire State Building accident wasn't some minor fender bender in the sky; it was a high-octane disaster that left a hole 18 by 20 feet in the side of a limestone icon. Eleven people in the building died. Three crewmen on the plane died. Yet, somehow, the building didn't fall. It didn't even come close.
The Pilot Who Took a Wrong Turn
Lieutenant Colonel William F. Smith Jr. wasn't some rookie. He was a decorated West Point grad with plenty of combat hours over Europe. He was hitching a ride from Bedford, Massachusetts, to Newark. The weather was garbage. Air traffic control at LaGuardia told him to land. They literally told him, "We’re not seeing the top of the Empire State Building." Smith, maybe a bit overconfident or just eager to get home, pushed on anyway.
He got disoriented.
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In the fog, he thought he was over the East River. He was actually over Manhattan. He turned left when he should have turned right, and suddenly, the gray mist parted to reveal the massive wall of the Empire State Building. He tried to climb. He tried to bank. It was too late. The plane hit the 79th floor at about 200 miles per hour.
Fire and Falling Elevators
The impact was violent. One engine tore straight through the building, exiting the opposite side and landing on the roof of a penthouse on 33rd Street. It started a fire that gutted the 78th and 79th floors. High-octane fuel poured down the elevator shafts, turning the center of the building into a chimney of flame.
This is where the story gets really weird.
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Betty Lou Oliver was working as an elevator operator. When the plane hit, the cables on her car snapped. She plummeted 75 stories. Let that sink in. 75 floors in a free-falling metal box. Most people would be vaporized. But the air pressure in the shaft and the broken cables coiling at the bottom acted like a giant spring. She survived. It remains the Guinness World Record for the longest survived elevator fall.
Why the Building Stayed Standing
You’d think a bomber hitting a skyscraper would bring the whole thing down, especially after what the world saw in 2001. But the Empire State Building is built like a fortress. It's a "heavy" building. It uses a massive steel frame encased in stone and brick. Unlike modern tube-frame skyscrapers that rely on the outer skin for support, the Empire State Building has a dense internal grid.
The B-25 was also a much smaller aircraft than a commercial jetliner. It weighed about 10 tons. A Boeing 767 weighs over 150 tons. The sheer mass of the Empire State Building absorbed the energy of the Empire State Building accident without losing structural integrity. In fact, the building opened for business on many floors just two days later. On a Monday.
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The Human Cost and the National Catholic Welfare Council
Most of those who died were employees of the National Catholic Welfare Council. They were just sitting at their desks, probably complaining about the humidity or talking about the end of the war, when a plane appeared in their office. It’s a grim reminder that even in the safest places, life can turn on a dime. The fire department fought the blaze for hours—at the time, it was the highest structural fire in New York City history.
Lessons We Still Use
Modern aviation and architecture owe a lot to the investigation of this crash. It changed how we handle "Visual Flight Rules" (VFR) in urban areas. You can't just fly a bomber through Manhattan in a fog bank anymore without every alarm in the Northeast going off.
The tragedy also highlighted the necessity of fireproofing elevator shafts and structural steel. Engineers studied the way the heat affected the limestone and the steel skeleton. It proved that the "grid" design was incredibly resilient to localized impact.
Actionable Insights for History Buffs and Travelers
If you're visiting New York or researching the Empire State Building accident, keep these points in mind to get the full picture:
- Visit the 80th Floor: Most tourists rush to the 86th or 102nd floors. Spend time on the 80th. There are historical exhibits there that detail the construction and the 1945 crash. Look at the photos of the damage; they are haunting.
- Check the Masonry: If you walk around the exterior of the building on the 34th Street side, you can sometimes spot where the stonework was repaired. The colors don't perfectly match the 1930s original limestone.
- Study the B-25 Specs: To understand why the building survived, compare the B-25 Mitchell's weight and fuel capacity to modern aircraft. It explains the physics of why the building didn't collapse.
- Aviation Regulations: Look up the "Special Flight Rules Area" (SFRA) for New York City. This crash is a primary reason why low-altitude flight over Manhattan is strictly regulated by the FAA today.
The 1945 crash is a footnote in many history books, but it’s a defining moment for New York resilience. It showed that even a direct hit from a literal war machine couldn't take down the city’s spirit—or its tallest tower.