Empire State B-25 Impact in 1945
Some interesting articles on the 1945 B-25 bomber impact with the Empire State Bldg. in the fog:
http://www.tms.org/pubs/journals/JOM/0112/News/News8-0112.html
"At 9:40 a.m., as workers went about their business in the Catholic War Relief Office on the 79th floor, the B-25 crashed into that office at 322 kilometers per hour.
The impact reportedly tore off the bomber’s wings, leaving a five meter by six meter hole in the building. One engine was catapulted through the Empire State Building, emerging on the opposite side and crashing through the roof of a neighboring building. The second engine and part of the bomber’s landing gear fell through an elevator shaft. When the plane hit,
its fuel tanks were reported to have exploded, engulfing the 79th floor in flames.
The 102-story building shook with the initial impact, according to witnesses, but within three months, the damage was repaired at a cost of about $1 million. Smith died in the crash, along with two other crew members. Eleven workers died in the Catholic War Relief Office, and at least two dozen people were injured."
From:
http://www.withthecommand.com/2002-Jan/NY-empireplane.html
"It is believed that the planes speed at this time was 225 mph. Within seconds the plane was closing rapidly on the Empire State Building. Col. Smith attempted to veer away from the structure but his proximity to the building would not allow for such an evasive maneuver. The plane impacted the 78th and 79th floors on the towers north end.
The impact of the plane created an 18 x 20 foot hole in the side of the tower. This crash caused extensive damage to the masonry exterior and the interior steel structure of the building. The 102-foot building was rocked by the impact. Many people who were in the street at the time saw flames shooting from the point of impact, which was at the 913-foot level. The impact was heard as far as two miles away. Flames and dense smoke obscured the top of the structure. Later on a wing was found on Madison Avenue, one block away. Nearby buildings were damaged by fragments of the impact and one of the planes engines was found on the South side of the building in the top of a twelve story building. The engine had flown over thirty-third St. and had crashed through a skylight in a penthouse."
From:
http://www.cosmik.com/aa-april02/dj82.html
"Colonel Smith banked away to the west just in time. How he got around the next few buildings is anybody's guess, but the one thing we do know is that despite his efforts to climb and bank away, he flew his plane, along with his two-man crew, into the north side of the 79th floor of the Empire State Building at 9:49 AM.
Inside the building there was only a small work force that day. On the 79th floor, in the offices of The National Catholic Welfare Service (now known as Catholic Relief Services), faith was put to a severe test as 11 workers were killed, some burned to death at their desks.
The impact was thunderous, leading many, both inside and outside the building, to believe that New York City was being bombed. Debris was raining down from over 900 feet in the sky, much of it burning. Naturally, panic ensued.
Back on the
79th floor, a fire was burning. The 78th floor was involved, as well, and there were other problems.
On impact, the plane's fuel had exploded, sending a fireball down the side of the building and through the inside via hallways and stairwells.
The fireball reached all the way to the 75th floor.
One of the plane's engines, broken loose from the wreckage, shot through the building, tearing through several walls and finally out a south side window, finally coming to rest on the roof of a 12-story building across 33rd Street. Miraculously, none of the tragedy's victims were killed by the giant engine.
The saga of engine number two is just as dramatic. It, too, broke loose from the plane on impact, but instead of exiting the building it flew directly into an elevator shaft and on top of an elevator car, which began to fall rapidly with two terrified women inside. Even in 1945 elevators were equipped with hydraulic "slowing" devices for emergencies like... well, nobody ever dreamed of emergencies like this one, but for emergencies, nonetheless. When a rescue crew finally reached what was left of the elevator car at the bottom of the shaft, they were amazed to find living, breathing women with one hell of a story to tell their grandchildren.
Back on 79, surviving office workers would have sadder stories to tell
their grandchildren. Two of the ladies from the office saw their supervisor, Joe Fountain, standing upright and still in the flames. They called to him and he eventually walked to them, but the damage had been done and he died just a few days later. They'd never shake that vision. Nobody who was near the Empire State Building that morning would ever be able to forget the sight of
that burning plane wedged in the side of the building, the black billowing smoke partially obscuring the upper floors from view"
[Ed: yes this was a much smaller, slower propeller-driven aircraft and a "conventional" steel & masonry skyscraper. Let's consider what we do find though.
1. Two OF TWO engines survive and are torn off the aircraft, one penetrating all of the way through the building and flying across the street.
2. A section of wing is torn off and found a block away on Madison Avenue
3. The WTC Towers were an "open" floor plan, increasing the probablity that at least ONE of the two the UA175 WTC2So engines should have penetrated through the Tower, with the starboard engine being very close to the perimeter columns.
4. Not even partial building collapse with 4 floors of aircraft fuel fire.]
