Plane Hits New York Skyscraper - in 1945!

Long before September 11, 2001, there was another case of an aircraft that struck a skyscraper.

On July 28, 1945, an Army Air Corps twin-engine B-25D Mitchell bomber crashed into the 79th floor of the 102-story Empire State Building.

It was a Saturday so the full population of 15,000 office workers was not present. Most of the offices were closed. But due to the wartime footing, there were still 1500 people in the building when the crash occurred.

However, the 79th floor where the crash would occur was among the busiest areas on that July morning. Twenty members of the National Catholic Welfare Conference were meeting these to discuss relief efforts for victims of World War Two, which Had just ended in Europe with VE Day.

The B-25 was piloted by veteran combat flyer Lieutenant-Colonel William Franklin Smith Jr., 27, deputy commander of the 457th Bomber Group, who was taking the aircraft from Bedford, Massachusetts to Newark, New Jersey. There were two other airmen flying with him, 31-year-old crew chief Staff Sergeant Christopher Domitrovich of Granite City, Illinois, and a passenger, Navy machinist's mate Albert G. Perna of Brooklyn, NY, who's brother had just been lost in the Pacific and who was on his way home to join his family.

New York City was covered by fog, Smith learned before 8:55am take-off. Approaching the city, Smith radioed La Guardia Airport to request permission to proceed on to Newark, but La Guardia recommended he land there since they could not even see the top of the Empire State Building.

Smith acknowledged but continued on course. Smith continued to descend as he flew over socked-in Manhattan Island towards Newark's airfield, about eight miles southwest, seeking the most direct route, one which took it straight out of fog at 900 feet above ground. Smith instantly found himself dodging buildings, twisting and turning so his 67-foot wingspan would clear the buildings. Slowly, the plane's wings began to lift as the B-25 strained for altitude. It was not enough.

At 225 mph, the 10-ton B-25 slammed into the city's tallest skyscraper between the 78th and 79th floors, killing all aboard, leaving an 18' by 20' crater in the side of the building. Instants later, the gas tanks blew inside the building and pedestrians below saw flames whoosh out behind it into the open air. One engine slammed into an elevator shaft and fell 79 floors to smash the elevator car. The other engine slammed forward through seven inner walls and the outer wall on the south side and fell to a rooftop 900 feet below.

Below, pedestrians looked up in astonishment as the flames licked away the fog that surrounded the building, then ran from the debris they saw raining down on them. Some of the debris scattered up to five blocks distant.

The members of the conference on the 79th floor were right in the plane's path. Six young female clerks died instantly. Three others died as they tried to escape the flames. One man jumped from a window. There were more casualties. When the count was taken, 14 people were killed and 25 injured, generally with burns from flaming gasoline. Smoke impaired rescue efforts, but help did get through. A 17-year-old Coast Guard pharmacist's mate standing on the street below grabbed morphine and hypodermic syringes from a nearby drug store and joined the first rescuers to respond. Near the crash site, he dispensed what help he could, providing morphine to those who needed it and marking the letter "M" on their foreheads to let doctors know what he had done.

On the top floors, guides maintained control over the visitors and shepherded them safely down the emergency, fireproof stairs, 86 floors to street level. They heard the cries of the crash victims through the walls as they passed the floors that had been struck by the bomber.

Mayor Fiorella La Guardia climbed the endless stairs to survey the wreckage. He heatedly criticized the Army for allowing it's aircraft to cross New York City airspace.

Despite the damage and deaths, the following Monday, many offices opened for business as usual. Some witnesses though the Japanese, who fought on in the Pacific, were responsible, until learning the cause of the bizarre accident. Nothing like it would be experienced until a later war began against Al Quaeda 56 years later at the World Trade Center.