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75 Years Ago Today; USAAF B-25 Mitchell crashes into the Empire State Building - 14 dead
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1945_Empire_State_Building_B-25_crash
The Empire State Building on fire following the crash
The Empire State Building B-25 crash was a 1945 aircraft accident in which a B-25 Mitchell bomber, piloted in thick fog over New York City, crashed into the Empire State Building. The accident did not compromise the building's structural integrity, but it did cause fourteen deaths (three crewmen and eleven people in the building) and damage estimated at US$1 million (equivalent to $13,917,000 in 2018).
Details
The plane embedded in the side of the building, 1945
On Saturday, July 28, 1945, Lieut. Col. William F. Smith Jr. was piloting a B-25 Mitchell bomber on a routine personnel transport mission from Bedford Army Air Field to Newark Airport. Smith asked for clearance to land, but he was advised of zero visibility. Proceeding anyway, he became disoriented by the fog and started turning right instead of left after passing the Chrysler Building.
At 9:40 a.m., the aircraft crashed into the north side of the Empire State Building, between the 78th and 80th floors, carving an 18-by-20-foot (5.5 m × 6.1 m) hole in the building where the offices of the National Catholic Welfare Council were located. One engine shot through the South side opposite the impact and flew as far as the next block, dropping 900 feet (270 m) and landing on the roof of a nearby building and starting a fire that destroyed a penthouse art studio. The other engine and part of the landing gear plummeted down an elevator shaft. The resulting fire was extinguished in 40 minutes. It is still the only significant fire at such a height to be brought under control.
Fourteen people were killed: Smith, two enlisted men aboard the bomber (Staff Sergeant Christopher Domitrovich and Albert Perna, a Navy Aviation Machinist's Mate, hitching a ride), and eleven people in the building. The remains of Navy hitchhiker Albert Perna were not found until two days later, when search crews discovered that his body had gone through an elevator shaft and fallen to the bottom. The other two crewmen were burned beyond recognition. Elevator operator Betty Lou Oliver was injured when the cables supporting her elevator sheared and the elevator fell 75 stories, ending up in the basement. Oliver survived the fall, and rescuers found her amongst the rubble. This still stands as the Guinness World Record for the longest survived elevator fall.
Between 50 and 60 sightseers were on the 86th floor observation deck when the crash happened. Three crew members were killed upon impact. The victims were named as Paul Dearing, Lt. Co. William F. Smith, St. Sgt. Christopher S. Demitrovich, Jean Sozzi, Margaret Mullen, Mary Kedzierska, Betty Lou Oliver, Anna Gerlach, Joseph “Joe” C. Fountain, and Albert Perna. The others missing and suspected to be decease are: Lucille Bath, Anne Gerlach, Patricia O’Connor, Maureen McGuire, Mary Taylor, John A. Judge. Clairissa appeared on the tv show "The Ghost Inside My Child" and claimed to be reincarnated and to have full knowledge of being a woman named Anne Gerlach, the show visited the site and told her story.
Despite the damage and loss of life, the building was open for business on many floors on the following Monday. The crash spurred the passage of the long-pending Federal Tort Claims Act of 1946, as well as the insertion of retroactive provisions into the law, allowing people to sue the government for the accident.
</snip>
The Empire State Building on fire following the crash
The Empire State Building B-25 crash was a 1945 aircraft accident in which a B-25 Mitchell bomber, piloted in thick fog over New York City, crashed into the Empire State Building. The accident did not compromise the building's structural integrity, but it did cause fourteen deaths (three crewmen and eleven people in the building) and damage estimated at US$1 million (equivalent to $13,917,000 in 2018).
Details
The plane embedded in the side of the building, 1945
On Saturday, July 28, 1945, Lieut. Col. William F. Smith Jr. was piloting a B-25 Mitchell bomber on a routine personnel transport mission from Bedford Army Air Field to Newark Airport. Smith asked for clearance to land, but he was advised of zero visibility. Proceeding anyway, he became disoriented by the fog and started turning right instead of left after passing the Chrysler Building.
At 9:40 a.m., the aircraft crashed into the north side of the Empire State Building, between the 78th and 80th floors, carving an 18-by-20-foot (5.5 m × 6.1 m) hole in the building where the offices of the National Catholic Welfare Council were located. One engine shot through the South side opposite the impact and flew as far as the next block, dropping 900 feet (270 m) and landing on the roof of a nearby building and starting a fire that destroyed a penthouse art studio. The other engine and part of the landing gear plummeted down an elevator shaft. The resulting fire was extinguished in 40 minutes. It is still the only significant fire at such a height to be brought under control.
Fourteen people were killed: Smith, two enlisted men aboard the bomber (Staff Sergeant Christopher Domitrovich and Albert Perna, a Navy Aviation Machinist's Mate, hitching a ride), and eleven people in the building. The remains of Navy hitchhiker Albert Perna were not found until two days later, when search crews discovered that his body had gone through an elevator shaft and fallen to the bottom. The other two crewmen were burned beyond recognition. Elevator operator Betty Lou Oliver was injured when the cables supporting her elevator sheared and the elevator fell 75 stories, ending up in the basement. Oliver survived the fall, and rescuers found her amongst the rubble. This still stands as the Guinness World Record for the longest survived elevator fall.
Between 50 and 60 sightseers were on the 86th floor observation deck when the crash happened. Three crew members were killed upon impact. The victims were named as Paul Dearing, Lt. Co. William F. Smith, St. Sgt. Christopher S. Demitrovich, Jean Sozzi, Margaret Mullen, Mary Kedzierska, Betty Lou Oliver, Anna Gerlach, Joseph “Joe” C. Fountain, and Albert Perna. The others missing and suspected to be decease are: Lucille Bath, Anne Gerlach, Patricia O’Connor, Maureen McGuire, Mary Taylor, John A. Judge. Clairissa appeared on the tv show "The Ghost Inside My Child" and claimed to be reincarnated and to have full knowledge of being a woman named Anne Gerlach, the show visited the site and told her story.
Despite the damage and loss of life, the building was open for business on many floors on the following Monday. The crash spurred the passage of the long-pending Federal Tort Claims Act of 1946, as well as the insertion of retroactive provisions into the law, allowing people to sue the government for the accident.
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