A man hovers over a piece debris from the B-25 Bomber near 33rd Street.The view of the Empire State Building after a B-25 Bomber crash.

Workmen clear up the wreckage of the B-25 Bomber that crashed into the Empire States Building at the 78th floor.

A view of the hole rammed into the 78th and 79th stories of the Empire State Building by a B-25 Bomber flying in the fog. Part of the wreckage hangs from the 78th story.

A man examines charred documents in an office in the Empire State Building after a B-25 Bomber crashed into the side of the building.

Don Maloney, Coast Guardsman, carries a first aid kit as he helps injured woman down stairs at the Empire State Building after B-25 Bomber crashed into the building.

Lost in the fog that hung low over New York City on the morning of July 28th, a B-25 Bomber crashed into the Empire State Building and, flaming, plummeted to the roof of the Waldorf Bldg at 10 East 33rd street. The ill-fated plane smashed through the skylight of the studio of sculptor Henry Hering, ruining the artist’s apartment and his art work. Here is the broken skylight, with the Empire State Building in background.It turned out that the B-25 was a service bomber being transported from Massachusetts to LaGuardia Airport in NYC when the tragic collision occurred. The pilot, war hero Captain William Smith, had been advised by LaGuardia not to attempt a landing in such bad fog, but Smith ignored the order, got disoriented, and ended up smack in the middle of Manhattan. He, two crew members, and 11 people inside the Empire State building perished.Betty, just 20-years-old, broke her pelvis, back, and neck. She spent months stabilizing in the hospital, but recovered fully within the year. Bizarrely, the day of the crash had been her last scheduled day on the job—she was supposed to be leaving New York City to join her husband, Oscar Lee, at Fort Smith in Arizona. That trip was obviously delayed a bit. She did eventually get there, with one a hell of a story to tell.After being discharged from the hospital, Betty Lou Oliver, who fell 75 floors in an elevator during the incident, returns to the scene of the tragic accident. Dec. 2, 1945.

Betty Lou died in 1999 at the age of 74, leaving behind three children and seven grandchildren.