It was a mess.
You’ve probably seen the black-and-white photos of the B-25 Mitchell bomber wedged into the side of the world's most famous skyscraper. It looks fake. It looks like a promo for a 1940s disaster flick, but the 1945 Empire State plane crash was a very real, very terrifying moment in New York City history. It happened on July 28, 1945. World War II was winding down, the city was humid, and the fog was so thick you couldn't see your own feet.
Lieutenant Colonel William Franklin Smith Jr. was at the controls. He was a decorated pilot, a West Point grad with plenty of combat hours under his belt. He was flying from Bedford, Massachusetts, heading toward Newark Airport to pick up his commanding officer. The weather was garbage. People at the LaGuardia tower told him not to land. They told him visibility was zero. Smith, perhaps with that invincible "combat pilot" mindset, decided to push through anyway.
He got disoriented. It’s a classic case of spatial disorientation that pilots still study today. He thought he was over the East River, but he was actually over midtown Manhattan.
Why the B-25 ended up in a skyscraper
The B-25 wasn't a small Cessna. It was a massive, twin-engine medium bomber. When Smith realized he was flying among the "canyons" of New York’s skyscrapers, he tried to climb. He missed the Chrysler Building. He missed several other towers. But at 9:40 AM, he couldn't miss the Empire State Building.
The plane slammed into the north side of the 79th floor.
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The impact was violent. One engine tore straight through the building, exited the south side, and crashed through the roof of a penthouse across the street. The other engine and part of the landing gear fell down an elevator shaft. Think about that for a second. An entire airplane engine plummeted 70-plus stories. It started a fire that reached all the way down to the sub-cellars.
Most people don't realize how small the death toll actually was, considering the scale of the disaster. Fourteen people died. Three were on the plane, and eleven were inside the building, mostly employees of the National Catholic Welfare Conference.
The elevator fall that defied physics
This is where the story gets weird. Honestly, if it were in a movie, you'd call it unrealistic.
Betty Lou Oliver was an elevator operator. She was working on the 80th floor when the plane hit. The impact threw her out of her car, leaving her with severe burns. Rescuers, trying to be helpful, put her in a different elevator to send her down for medical treatment. They didn't realize the cables of that elevator had been severely damaged by the plane’s engine.
The cables snapped.
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She fell 75 stories.
She survived.
To this day, she holds the Guinness World Record for the longest survived fall in an elevator. The severed cables coiled at the bottom of the shaft, creating a sort of springy "cushion," and the air pressure in the shaft likely slowed the descent just enough. It’s a miracle, basically. There's no other word for it. She spent months in the hospital, but she lived a full life afterward.
Structural integrity and the lessons of 1945
People often compare the 1945 Empire State plane crash to the events of 9/11, but the physics were totally different. The B-25 was a fraction of the size of a modern commercial airliner. It carried much less fuel.
Also, the Empire State Building is a tank.
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It was built with a massive steel frame and heavy masonry. While the crash started a massive fire, the building’s structure didn't flinch. The fire was extinguished in about 40 minutes—the highest fire ever fought by the FDNY at that time. The building actually opened back up for business on many floors the very next Monday. Talk about New York grit.
The incident led to the Federal Tort Claims Act of 1946. Before this, you couldn't actually sue the federal government for damages like this. The families of the victims pushed for change, and now, because of a bomber hitting a skyscraper in the fog, citizens have the right to seek legal recourse against the government for negligence.
What we can learn from the wreckage
If you're a history buff or just someone interested in how cities handle disasters, the 1945 crash offers a few stark takeaways.
- Trust the tower: Smith was warned. He ignored it. In aviation, "get-there-itis" is a killer.
- Redundancy saves lives: The masonry of the Empire State Building contained the fire much better than modern glass-and-steel structures might have.
- The human element: The bravery of the office workers who stayed behind to help colleagues through the smoke is often overshadowed by the "spectacle" of the plane in the wall.
If you ever visit the Empire State Building, look at the 79th and 80th floors. You won't see a scar—the repairs were seamless—but the history is there. It’s a reminder that even in the middle of a world-changing war, disaster can strike in the most domestic, unexpected ways.
To dive deeper into this event, start by looking up the FDNY's official historical records of the fire response; they offer a minute-by-minute breakdown of how they managed a high-rise fire before modern equipment existed. You should also check out the National Archives for the original crash report, which details Smith's flight path and the mechanical state of the B-25. It’s a sobering look at how a few small errors in judgment can change the skyline forever.