79 years ago, Betty Lou Oliver was fortunate to survive a severe injury when a plane crashed into a building and she fell freely in an elevator on the same day.
On July 28, 1945, a tragedy struck New York. A B-25 Mitchell bomber accidentally collided with the Empire State Building while flying through thick fog. The accident claimed the lives of 14 people. However, the story of one of the survivors, Betty Lou Oliver, continues to attract attention nearly 80 years later. That day, Oliver escaped death twice, the second time surviving the elevator fall, according to IFL Science.
Betty Lou Oliver (using crutches) recovered after the accident for several months and lived another 54 years. (Photo: History Collection).
Initially, the bomber was scheduled to land at LaGuardia Airport but could not due to the dense fog. The pilot requested to land at Newark, thus flying over Manhattan. The aircraft flew very close to the Chrysler Building. Subsequently, the pilot might have lost orientation due to the fog and veered off course, causing the plane to crash directly into the north side of the Empire State Building.
At 9:40 AM that morning, the B-25 struck the building between the 78th and 80th floors. Three people on the plane and 11 people in the building died. Fire spread throughout the building and was extinguished after 40 minutes. This was the highest structural fire that firefighters had ever successfully controlled. The structural integrity of the building remained unaffected, despite one engine crashing through the building and landing on an art studio one floor below, while the other engine descended and one person on the plane fell into the elevator shaft.
At the time, Betty Lou Oliver was just 20 years old and worked as an elevator operator in the building. She was on the 80th floor when the plane hit the building. The impact was so strong that Oliver was thrown from the elevator, and as the fire spread, she suffered severe burns. After receiving first aid, Oliver was placed in another elevator to be moved to the ground floor. They were unaware that the cable was damaged. When the elevator started moving, the cable snapped, and the elevator fell straight down 75 floors.
The elevator had multiple cables capable of supporting weights greater than that of a car, and it also had emergency brakes. Rare occurrences can lead to multiple malfunctions. Oliver remained fully conscious. She shared that it felt like the elevator was flying away from her, and she had to cling to the elevator walls to avoid drifting.
Several factors likely saved Oliver’s life that day. First, the air pressure in the enclosed shaft helped slow the elevator’s descent. The elevator crashed into oil buffers at the bottom of the shaft. Second, the cables that accumulated at the bottom of the shaft also cushioned the impact. It is possible that Oliver was lying face down while clinging to the elevator walls, which helped distribute the impact force better throughout her body.
However, Oliver still suffered fractures in several areas, including her pelvis, back, and neck. It took her several months to fully recover, and she lived for another 54 years. This incident remains the longest free-fall elevator drop in which a person survived.
