Plane Crash Into the Empire State Building

Long before the tragedy of 9/11, New York was shook by another plane crash.  On the foggy morning of Saturday July 28, 1945, just two weeks before the United States dropped atomic bombs on Japan to end World War II, the pilot of a US B-25 bomber became disorientated on his was to a routine personnel drop at Newark airport and crashed into the Empire State Building. 

The death toll was only 14 but could have been much higher had it occurred on a weekday when more people were at work.  The crash occurred at 9:40 am and carved a 18 x 20 foot opening in the Empire State Building, engulfing the building in flames.







One of the plane's engines landed in the elevator car, sending the elevator operator Betty Lou Oliver plummeting 75 stories (1000 feet).  Miraculously, she survived the fall, and her fall is recorded in the Guiness Book of World Records as the longest survived elevator fall.