On the foggy morning of Saturday, July 28, 1945, Lt. Colonel William Smith was piloting
a U.S. Army B-25 bomber through New York City. He was on his way to Newark Airport to
pick up his commanding officer, but for some reason he showed up over LaGuardia Airport
and asked for a weather report. Because of the poor visibility the LaGuardia tower
wanted to him to land, but Smith requested and received permission from the military
to continue on to Newark. The last transmission from the LaGuardia tower to the plane
was a foreboding warning: "From where I'm sitting, I can't see the top of the Empire
State Building."
Confronted with dense fog, Smith dropped the bomber low to regain
visibility, where he found himself in the middle of Manhattan, surrounded by skyscrapers.
At first, the bomber was headed directly for the New York Central Building but at the last
minute, Smith was able to bank west and miss it. Unfortunately, this put him in line for
another skyscraper. Smith managed to miss several skyscrapers until he was headed for the
Empire State Building. At the last minute, Smith tried to get the bomber to climb and twist away,
but it was too late.
At 9:49 a.m., the ten-ton, B-25 bomber smashed into the north side of
the Empire State Building. The majority of the plane hit the 79th floor, creating a hole in
the building eighteen feet wide and twenty feet high. The plane's high-octane fuel exploded,
hurtling flames down the side of the building and inside through hallways and stairwells all
the way down to the 75th floor.
World War II had caused many to shift to a six-day
work week; thus there were many people at work in the Empire State Building that
Saturday. The plane crashed into the offices of the War Relief Services of the National
Catholic Welfare Conference. Catherine O'Connor described the crash:
The plane
exploded within the building. There were five or six seconds - I was tottering on my
feet trying to keep my balance - and three-quarters of the office was instantaneously
consumed in this sheet of flame. One man was standing inside the flame. I could see
him. It was a co-worker, Joe Fountain. His whole body was on fire. I kept calling to
him, "Come on, Joe; come on, Joe." He walked out of it.
Joe Fountain died several
days later. Eleven of the office workers were burned to death, some still sitting at
their desks, others while trying to run from the flames.
One of the engines and part
of the landing gear hurtled across the 79th floor, through wall partitions and two fire
walls, and out the south wall's windows to fall onto a twelve-story building across
33rd Street. The other engine flew into an elevator shaft and landed on an elevator car.
The car began to plummet, slowed somewhat by emergency safety devices.
Miraculously, when help arrived at the remains of the elevator car in the basement,
the two women inside the car were still alive.
Some debris from the crash fell to
the streets below, sending pedestrians scurrying for cover, but most fell onto the
buildings setbacks at the fifth floor. Still, a bulk of the wreckage remained stuck
in the side of the building. After the flames were extinguished and the remains of
the victims removed, the rest of the wreckage was removed through the building.
The
plane crash killed 14 people (11 office workers and the three crewmen) plus injured 26
others. Though the integrity of the Empire State Building was not affected, the cost
of the damage done by the crash was $1 million.
New York City also known as "the city that never sleeps" has so many places of interest that it is nearly
impossible to name them all. Among the most famous of them is the observation deck on the Empire State Building.
This historical attraction is located at 350 Fifth Avenue right in the heart of NYC.
Constructed in the early 1930"s on the site of the old Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, this was the tallest building
in the world for over forty years. The Observation Deck located on the 86th floor is 320 meters or 1050 feet
above the busy streets of New York. The Observatory as it is called, is handicap accessible and is
open 365 days a year.
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