Empire State Building Collision
On Saturday, July 28, 1945, Lt. Colonel William Smith was flying a B-25D-15-NC on a flight from Bedford, Massachusetts to Newark, New Jersey. On board with Lt. Colonel Smith was SSgt. Christopher Domitrovich and Albert Perna. The B-25 was a converted VIP transport plane. It was a foggy morning when they departed the airport just prior to 9 am.
Lt. Colonel Smith was only 27. He was a highly decorated airman earning several medals including the distinguished flying cross. The Deputy Commander of a famed bomb group, he was a graduate of West Point. He was married to his wife Martha, and had one son named Billy. Although Lt. Colonel Smith was comfortable in bombers having flown hundreds of hours in a B-17, this was only his second time flying a B-25. This flight would be without a copilot.
SSgt. Christopher Domitrovich was just 31. A C-47 crew chief, he was comfortable with aircraft. He was familiar with this B-25 as he led it's overhaul and conversion to a VIP transport. Just a few months prior, on September 17, 1944, he was shot down in a C-47 in operation Market Garden. For this flight, SSgt. Domitrovich would sit in the copilots seat.
Albert Perna boarded the flight as Lt. Colonel Smith was running the B-25 through it's preflight checklist. He was an aviation Machinist's Mate Second Class. Currently he held the highest security clearance as he was maintaining some of the first aircraft to have radar installed. His brother, Anthony, a Carpenter Second Class, had been listed as "missing - presumed dead". He was serving aboard the destroyer "Luce" when it was attacked. Now confirmed dead, Albert was on leave to help console his grieving parents.
The B-25, named "Old John Feather Merchant". A B-25D-15-NC SN 41-30577, she was completed by the North American Aviation Kansas plant on May 25th 1943. She was delivered to Randolph Field in San Antonio, Texas to be used as a trainer for the 12th Air Force in North Africa. By the end of her service as a trainer, she had trained 32 different combat crews. In June of 1945, she was flown to Cincinnati and placed under the Military Air Transport Command. She would be converted to a VIP transport. Her bomb bay doors bolted shut.
The original flight plan was a direct flight from Bedford to Newark. Just prior to leaving Bedford, Lt. Colonel Smith was given some bad news. Due to the weather, he would have to fly "instruments". With all of the flights in the air, his flight would not be able to leave Bedford until after 11am. Lt. Colonel Smith knew he needed to be in Newark before 10am to pick up Colonel Rogner. He inquired about La Guardia airport and was told they were still "contact" with a 1,500 foot ceiling. "Contact" meant he would have to fly below the cloud cover to keep visual contact with the ground at all times. He knew that if the ceiling dropped below 1,000 feet, the flight would have to be terminated. Lt. Colonel Smith requested clearance for that route.
During the flight, there was a lot of turbulence. He dropped to 800 feet while over Queens. Lt Colonel Smith contacted La Guardia several times to get a weather update. He was told to stay off the radio until he reached the airport as the air traffic controllers were busy guiding other aircraft that were currently flying. Less than an hour into the flight, Lt. Colonel Smith reached the New York Municipal airport in Queens (now known as La Guardia airport). He had not contacted them to notify them of his arrival.
At that point in history, decisions involving military aircraft were not made by civilian air traffic control. In this case, Lt. Colonel Smith was violating visual flight rules as the ceiling had dropped well below the 1,000 foot minimum. He also flew into La Guardia airspace without authorization. Either of these infractions were reason for grounding the plane. Civilian air traffic control recommended just that. The military command at the time didn't want to get involved with the argument.
Air traffic control warned of the poor visibility and suggested the plane land. It is reported that the control tower noted the visibility was so poor they could not see the top of the Empire State building. Lt. Colonel Smith acknowledged the message and requested clearance to continue to Newark. That request was granted. The pilot was instructed to return to La Guardia and land if the visibility decreased to below 3 miles. The visibility at the time was just over 2 miles.
Flight rules of the time required a minimum altitude of 2000 feet while over the city. Lt. Colonel, lost in the fog, dropped well below that altitude. In the fog, He had mistaken Walfare Island for Manhattan. Lt. Colonel Smith thought he was on course to land at Newark. He found himself flying through the streets of New York City. Army Air force Lt. Frank Covey watched as the B-25 flew just past the New York Central Office Building at about the 22nd floor. By all accounts, Lt. Colonel Smith flew the plane well and narrowly missed many other buildings.
The plane flew down 42nd street and then turned south at about 5th street. This put the B-25 on a collision course toward the world's tallest building. At approximately 9:49 am, the B-25 collided with the Empire State Building. Despite pulling up and banking hard, the bomber hit between the 78th and 79th floors. The force of impact tore the plane apart sending a wall of burning fuel down the side of the building.
One of the engines flew through the building and landed on the street below. The other engine fell into an elevator shaft shearing 16 cables. That elevator and it's operator, Betty Lou Oliver, fell over 100 feet in 4 seconds. Amazingly, she survived the drop. The 3 occupants of the B-25 were killed along with 11 office workers in the building. There were also 26 injuries. Although there was major damage to the 78th, 79th, and 80th floors, the main structure of the building was not severely damaged.
An interesting side note is that city code in New York requires buildings to withstand the impact of an airplane. The Empire State Building obviously did quite well. The only other time an airplane has collided with a building in New York was on September 11, 2001. The Twin Towers were also engineered to withstand the collision with an airplane. The largest airplane at the time of construction was a Boeing 737. The airplanes that struck the World Trade Center buildings were 767's. These planes weigh over 15 times as much as a B-25 and the estimated airspeed at time of impact was almost twice as fast. Unfortunately, there was a different outcome.
