Captain William Smith, a decorated World War II pilot, was flying a B-25 Mitchell bomber on a routine mission on 28th July, 1945. In heavy fog over New York, he got disoriented and tragically turned the wrong way, narrowly missing the Chrysler Building - before crashing into the Empire State Building.

Elevator operator Betty Lou Oliver, was thrown from her lift, but miraculously survived. First responders, unaware of the damaged cables in the shaft, placed her in another elevator to transport her for medical care - and the cables snapped, sending her plummeting 1,000 feet. Yet, astonishingly, she survived: setting a world record for the longest-survived elevator fall.

In this episode Arion, Rebecca and Olly consider how the incident led to landmark legislation allowing American citizens to sue the federal government; explain why the dramatic crash didn’t make a splash you might expect on the New York Times; and reveal the best position to adopt if you find yourself in a plunging elevator cart…

Further Reading:

• ‘Why a Plane Crashed into the Empire State Building 70 Years Ago’ (TIME, 2015): https://time.com/3967660/army-pilot-crash-empire-state-building/

• ‘This Woman Cheated Death Twice on the Same Day After a 1945 Disaster’ (History Collection, 2017): https://historycollection.com/cheat-death-twice-betty-lou-oliver-survived-75-storey-elevator-crash-plane-crashed-building/

• ‘TBT: She survived the longest elevator free fall’ (CNN, 2017): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHM-0c_Otes

This episode first aired in 2024

Image By Bettman archive, Corbis, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18623093

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The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.

Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart

Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2025.

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