B-25 Empire State Building Plane crash

At 9:40 a.m. on Saturday, July 28, 1945, a B-25 Mitchell bomber, piloted in thick fog by Lieutenant Colonel William Franklin Smith, Jr.,crashed into the north side of the Empire State Building, between the 78th and 80th floors,carving a 18 ft x 20 ft hole in the building; where the offices of the National Catholic Welfare Council were located. One engine shot through the side opposite the impact and flew as far as the next block where it landed on the roof of a nearby building, starting a fire that destroyed a penthouse. The other engine and part of the landing gear plummeted down an elevator shaft. The resulting fire was extinguished in 40 minutes. 14 people were killed in the incident.Elevator operator Betty Lou Oliver survived a plunge of 75 stories inside an elevator, which still stands as the Guinness World Record for the longest survived elevator fall recorded. It is still the only fire at such a height that was ever successfully controlled.Despite the damage and loss of life, the building was open for business on many floors on the following Monday. The crash helped spur the passage of the long-pendingFederal 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

The crash of a b-25 bomber into the empire state building,14 were killed,26 injured