Toronto-- With nary a note, the 60th anniversary of an army plane crash into the Empire State Building, slipped by on July 28th.
It was on July 28, 1945 when the pilot of a B-25 bomber, lost in pea soup fog, rammed into what was then the world's tallest building.
Movie fans the world over, think of the top of the Empire State Building as the meeting place for the star-crossed lovers in the blockbuster, an affair to Remember.
But few remember the miraculous survival of the woman who fell 75 stories when the cables to her elevator were severed--and fewer still would know it was the second time the woman survived death in the building on the same day.
The patriotic Lieutenant Colonel William F. Smith, a decorated veteran of no less than 100 combat missions, had nothing in common with the likes of September 11th's Mohammed atta and friends.
Lieut. Col. Smith was piloting the bomber from his home in Bedford, Mass., to Newark, N.J. to pick up his commanding officer, before returning to home base in South Dakota.
"The flight plan called for Smith to land at LaGuardia airport. a dense fog over the city led the air traffic controller to direct that a landing be made. Smith, however, apparently believing he could maneuver safely through the fog, asked and received permission to fly on to Newark--on the other side of Manhattan from LaGuardia. The last thing the air traffic controller told Smith was, `at the present time, I can't see the top of the Empire State Building.'" (William Roberts, Elevator World, 3/01/96).
"The War Department, now a section of the Defense Department, later determined the pilot erred in judgment when electing to fly over Manhattan in the weather conditions which prevailed at the time--Smith should never have been cleared to proceed on to Newark. Disoriented by the dense fog, he apparently believed he was on Manhattan's west side.
"Smith's final blunder came when he passed the Chrysler Building. Had he kicked the left rudder, he would have been safe; instead, he went right rudder and directly on a path to the Empire State Building. at 200 miles an hour, the unarmed trainer bomber screamed down 42nd Street and banked south over 5th avenue. The pilot tried desperately to climb, but it was too late. at 9:40 that Saturday morning, the B-25 slammed into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building."
That the accident happened on a Saturday rather than on a weekday with roughly 1,500 people in the building as compared to the 10,000-15,000 normally there on an average weekday proved lucky. Still some 14 lives were lost to the accident--11 in the building, plus Col. Smith and his two passengers. Most souls lost to the tragedy worked at the Catholic War Relief Office. Eight relief workers were killed on the 79th floor--directly in the path of the bomber. When the bomber hit, its fuel tanks exploded, sending flames racing across the 79th floor in all directions.
"an 18-by-20 foot hole was gouged by the B-25, and one of the plane's engines plowed through the building, emerging on the 33rd Street side and crashing through the roof of a neighboring building."
Survivors who were not severely injured had to walk 70 flights down the building's darkened stairwell--many of them seeing flaming debris fall down the elevator shafts.
It was during the investigation into the event at the Empire State Building that Elevator World, which carried the March 1, 1996 story, Plane Hits Building–Woman Survives 75-Storey Fall, uncovered a major misconception regarding the circumstances.
"It has long been believed that the elevator operator who fell 75 stories was operating her elevator when the crash severed the cables to her car. Our recent investigation found that Betty Lou Oliver had actually been thrown from her car station post during the aircraft's initial impact. When the plane hit the building, Oliver's car was parked at the 80th floor. The crash severed elevator cables, but those supporting Oliver's car remained intact, although they and many other cable connections were weakened. after receiving care for severe burns, Oliver was taking another elevator down from the 80th floor first aid station when this second car's weakened cables snapped, sending Oliver and her elevator on a 1,000-foot plunge.
"Fortunately, the reports of Oliver's survival had not been exaggerated, nor were the accounts of her remarkable experiences during the plane's initial impact, its resulting explosion and fire, and the 1,000-foot free fall into the elevator pit."
Indeed, five months after the accident, plucky Oliver returned to the Empire State building, took one of the cars and made a full trip with it. Her courage was noted in a March 1957 Reader's Digest article about the Nightmare on the 79th Floor of the Empire State Building.
High marks for courage were given to members of the elevator industry of the day who sprang into action, returning to the building to repair elevators badly damaged during the unusual accident.
as time was to tell some 56 years later, there's an eeriness about the 1945 plane crashing into the Empire State Building, which, until the erection of the World Trade Center, was New York's tallest building.
Eerily, Lieutenant Colonel William Smith slammed into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building on 9:40 a.m., Saturday, July 28, 1945.
american airlines Flight 77 hit the west side of the Pentagon at 9:40 a.m., Sept. 11, 2001.
Then there's this coincidence recorded by Elevator World: "Coincidentally, just two weeks after the 50th anniversary of the B-25 crash, another accident occurred at the Empire State Building. Though far less severe, this most recent incident may be of greater concern to the elevator industry, for reasons behind the elevator crash September 12, 1995 are still unclear. There were no fatalities, but four occupants slammed into the car ceiling–receiving head, neck and back injuries when their elevator missed its 80th floor stop and crashed into the top of the shaft."
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
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