The collision of a B-25 bomber with the Empire State Building is an accident that occurred on July 28, 1945, when the B-25 Mitchell bomber , piloted in heavy fog over New York City , crashed into the Empire State Building . The accident did not violate the structural integrity of the building, but resulted in the death of fourteen people (three crew members and eleven people in the building) and damage estimated at $ 1,000,000 ($ 13,303,142 at the 2016 exchange rate).
| B-25 bomber clash with Empire State Building | |
|---|---|
 Remains of a bomber on the facade of a skyscraper | |
| General information | |
| date | July 28, 1945 |
| Time | 09:40 |
| Character | CFIT (collision with the building) |
| A place |  Empire State Building , New York , USA |
| Dead | 14 (11 on earth + 3 in the plane) |
| Aircraft | |
| Model | North American B-25 Mitchell |
| Aircraft name | Old john feather merchant |
| Affiliation |  USAF |
| Departure point | Khansky , Bedford , United States |
| Destination | Newark , United States |
| Board number | 41-30577 |
| Crew | 3 |
| Dead | 3 |
| Survivors | 0 |
Details
At 9:40 am the plane crashed into the North side of the Empire State Building between the 78th and 80th floors, piercing a hole in the wall measuring 5.5 m × 6.1 meters (18 feet by 20 feet) where the offices were located National Catholic Council . One of the engines flew through the building and pierced the southern wall on the other side, flew about three hundred meters, landed on the roof of a nearby building and caused a fire that destroyed the art studio in its penthouse . Another engine and part of the chassis fell into the elevator shaft. However, the fire was extinguished within 40 minutes. It was the only fire at that altitude, taken under control.
Fourteen people died: pilot Smith and two others aboard the bomber (staff sergeant Christopher Domitrovich and Albert Perna, assistant driver of the Navy, who hitchhiked), and eleven more in the building. Smith's body was found by search teams two days later at the bottom of an elevator shaft. Lifter Betty Lou Oliver was injured.
Despite injuries and casualties, the Empire State Building was largely opened as early as next Monday.
The catastrophe spurred the adoption of the long-awaited Federal Act on the initiation of tort claims in 1946, as well as the introduction of retroactive provisions in the law, allowing people to sue the government for an accident.
The missing stone on the facade served as proof that the plane crashed into the building.
In the 1960s, when the World Trade Center was designed, this incident motivated developers to consider the scenario of an accidental strike of a Boeing 707 aircraft on one of the twin towers.
The towers were destroyed when two Boeing 767s were deliberately aimed at them during the attacks of September 11, 2001 .