Imagine it’s July 28, 1945. World War II is winding down, but the tension in New York City is still thick. It’s a Saturday morning, a bit before 10:00 AM, and the city is swallowed by a soup-thick fog. Then, out of nowhere, a roar. People on the ground look up, hearing the scream of twin engines where they definitely shouldn't be. Seconds later, a B-25 Mitchell bomber slams into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building.
It sounds like a movie plot. It wasn't.
The Empire State Building plane crash remains one of the most bizarre and terrifying moments in New York history. Honestly, it’s a miracle the whole building didn't come down. Most people today think of 9/11 when they imagine a plane hitting a skyscraper, but 1945 was a completely different beast. This wasn't an attack. It was a tragic, preventable accident caused by a pilot who thought he knew better than the air traffic controllers.
The Pilot who flew into a skyscraper
Lt. Col. William Franklin Smith Jr. was no rookie. He was a decorated West Point grad with plenty of combat hours under his belt. He was flying from Bedford, Massachusetts, heading toward Newark Airport. But that fog? It was brutal. Visibility was basically zero. When he contacted the tower at LaGuardia, they told him—point blank—not to land. They told him to stay put or divert.
Smith didn't.
He decided to push through. Whether it was overconfidence or just a desperate need to get home, he stayed low to try and find his bearings. That was the fatal mistake. He was flying so low that he was actually weaving between the tops of Midtown buildings. He missed the Chrysler Building. He missed several others. But he didn't miss the tallest one.
The bomber, weighing about 10 tons, smashed into the north side of the building. It carved an 18-by-20-foot hole right into the 78th and 79th floors. One engine shot straight through the building, came out the other side, and fell an entire block, landing on a penthouse on 33rd Street. The other engine and part of the landing gear plummeted down an elevator shaft.
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The miracle of Betty Lou Oliver
You can’t talk about the Empire State Building plane crash without talking about Betty Lou Oliver. Her story is the kind of thing that makes you question the laws of physics. Betty was a 20-year-old elevator operator. When the plane hit, she was badly burned and injured. First responders loaded her into an elevator to get her down to an ambulance.
Then the unthinkable happened.
The cables, weakened by the crash and the fire, snapped. Betty Lou plummeted 75 floors in a free-falling elevator car.
She survived.
She holds the Guinness World Record for the longest survived elevator fall. How? The air pressure in the narrow shaft acted like a piston, slowing the car down just enough, and the coiled cables at the bottom acted like a giant spring. She broke her back and both legs, but she lived. It’s a wild detail that feels fake, but it’s 100% documented history.
Fire at 900 feet in the air
The crash started a massive fire. High-octane fuel poured down the side of the building and into the hallways. In 1945, the Empire State Building didn't have the sophisticated sprinkler systems we have now. Firemen had to carry their gear up dozens of flights of stairs because the elevators were out or death traps.
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Thirteen people died that day. Three on the plane—Smith, his sergeant, and a Navy man hitching a ride—and eleven people inside the building. Most of those people were working for the National Catholic Welfare Conference. They were just at their desks, doing paperwork, and then the world exploded.
Why the building didn't collapse
The Empire State Building is a tank. Unlike modern skyscrapers that use a central core and a lighter outer skin, the Empire State is a heavy, steel-frame structure encased in limestone and granite. It was over-engineered to the extreme. When the B-25 hit, the building basically shrugged it off. Sure, there was a massive hole and a fire, but the structural integrity was never really in doubt.
Interestingly, the building was open for business on Monday. Two days later. That’s New York for you.
Modern misconceptions about the crash
A lot of people try to compare this to the 2001 attacks, but the physics are totally different. A B-25 Mitchell is a "medium bomber." It’s tiny compared to a commercial Boeing 767. The fuel load was also a fraction of what a modern jet carries. If a B-25 hit a modern glass-curtain wall building today, it would probably do more damage to the facade, but the 1945 event was a testament to the "Old World" heavy construction of the 1930s.
Also, some folks think this crash led to the creation of the FAA. Not exactly. It definitely hurried along the Federal Tort Claims Act of 1946, which finally allowed citizens to sue the federal government for negligence. Before this, you basically couldn't hold the government accountable if one of their pilots crashed into your office.
What we can learn from July 1945
History isn't just about dates; it's about the "what if" scenarios. If Smith had listened to the tower, those people would have finished their work day and gone home. If the elevator cables hadn't been frayed by the impact, Betty Lou wouldn't be in the record books.
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The Empire State Building plane crash serves as a stark reminder of the "human factor" in technology. We can build the strongest skyscrapers in the world, and we can build the fastest planes, but we're still at the mercy of a single person's decision-making in a crisis.
Key takeaways and facts to remember:
- The crash happened on a Saturday, which kept the death toll much lower than it would have been on a weekday.
- The 79th floor was the main point of impact.
- The cost of the damage back then was about $1 million. In today's money? Roughly $16 million.
- This event led to the first time the U.S. government was sued under the Federal Tort Claims Act.
- New York City changed its flight path rules over Manhattan almost immediately after the debris was cleared.
If you ever visit the Empire State Building, look at the stone. You can't see the hole anymore—the masonry work was flawless—but it's there. A permanent part of the building's skeleton.
Actionable Insights for History Buffs and Travelers
If you're heading to New York or just want to dive deeper into this specific piece of history, here is how you can actually "see" this event today:
- Visit the 80th Floor: Most people rush to the 86th-floor observatory. Stop at the 80th floor first. They have a permanent exhibit on the building's history, including a section specifically about the 1945 crash with photos taken just hours after the impact.
- Check the Masonry: If you view the building from the north side (34th Street), look around the 78th and 79th floors. While the repairs are excellent, under certain lighting, some enthusiasts claim you can see slight variations in the stone color where the "scar" was healed.
- Research the Federal Tort Claims Act: If you're into law, read the transcripts of the lawsuits following the crash. It changed how the U.S. legal system treats government negligence, making it a landmark case beyond just aviation.
- The Engine Site: Walk to 33rd Street. While the original penthouse that the engine destroyed has been renovated many times, standing there gives you a terrifying perspective of just how far parts of that plane traveled through the air and through the building itself.
The Empire State Building survived a bomber, the Great Depression, and nearly a century of New York chaos. It stands as a reminder that even when things go horribly wrong at 900 feet in the air, resilience is built into the foundation.