On July 28, 1945, a tragic accident happened in New York. A B-25 Mitchell bomber accidentally crashed into the Empire State Building while flying in thick fog. The incident claimed the lives of 14 people. But it is the story of one of the survivors, Betty Lou Oliver, that continues to captivate the attention of people almost 80 years on. That day, Oliver managed to cheat death twice, the second time by surviving a falling elevator.
The aircraft was supposed to land at LaGuardia Airport, but it couldn’t due to the foggy conditions. The pilot requested to land at Newark, which led the aircraft across Manhattan. It is believed that it flew very close to the Chrysler Building and after that, the pilot, maybe disoriented by the fog, veered in a trajectory that took the vehicle directly into the north-facing side of the Empire State Building.
At 9:40 am, the B52 hit the building between the 78th and 80th floor. The three people on the plane and 11 people in the building died. The resulting fire spread across the building, which was extinguished in 40 minutes; it was the highest structural fire ever brought under control by firefighters.
The building’s structural integrity was not compromised, despite one engine going through the building and falling on an art studio one block away, and the other engine, the landing gear, and one of the plane occupants falling into one of the elevator shafts.
Betty Lou Oliver was 20 at the time and she worked as an elevator operator in the building. Her car was stationary and on the 80th floor when the plane hit. The collision was so powerful that it threw her out of the elevator and as the fire spread, she received severe burns. Once she was reached by first aiders, she was placed in a different elevator and it was sent toward the ground floor. They had no idea that the cables were damaged. As it started to move, the cable snapped and the elevator fell for 75 stories.
Elevators have multiple cables that can hold the weight of more than a single car, and they also have emergency brakes. The extreme circumstances of the event led to multiple failures. A perfect storm of bad luck. Oliver was fully conscious and she reported that she felt like the elevator was rushing away from her and that she had to hang onto the sides to keep from floating.
Two things likely saved her life that day. First, the air pressure in the tight shaft is believed to have slowed down the cart as it rushed through the basement; the elevator also crashed against an oil buffer at the bottom of the shaft, but the buffer went right through the floor.
Second, other reports cite that cables accumulating at the bottom also helped cushion the impact. And maybe she remained lying down as she grabbed the sides, spreading the forces of the impact better across her body. However, Oliver did not come out unscathed; she reported multiple fractures, in the pelvis, back, and neck.
It took several months, but she made a full recovery and lived for another 54 years. It seems like it was not her time to go.
This is not the longest elevator fall that was survived by people (there was an 84-floor fall in Chicago a few years back, but emergency gear actually worked there), but it is believed to be the longest free fall of an elevator whose passenger lived to tell the tale.
Source Link: The Woman That Survived Her Elevator Falling For 75 Floors
