How an elevator attendant survived a 1,000-ft fall down the Empire State Building

By Sanj Atwal
Published
split image of Empire State and elevator shaft

On 28 July 1945, 20-year-old Betty Lou Oliver plunged 75 storeys (around 300 m or 1,000 ft) in an elevator down New York City’s Empire State Building, after an American B-25 bomber plane crashed into it.

Betty’s descent down what was then the world’s tallest building ended in the basement, where she had to be cut out of the mangled elevator.

Miraculously, Betty didn’t die, although she did suffer a broken neck, back, and pelvis.

Almost 80 years on, this remains the longest fall survived in an elevator.

Betty was working temporarily as an elevator girl at the Empire State Building while she waited in New York for her husband, a Navy torpedoman, to return from overseas, and she was completing her notice period when the plane crash happened.

The catastrophe was caused by 27-year-old Lieutenant Colonel William F. Smith, a decorated fighter pilot who had served in the war in Europe, which had been over for almost three months.

He was carrying out a basic mission, transporting army personnel from Massachusetts to Newark Metropolitan Airport in New Jersey, but once he got to New York he made a fatal error.

The city was swept with thick fog, and rather than turning left after the Chrysler Building, Smith mistakenly turned right, bringing him directly over midtown Manhattan.

Civil air regulations at the time required all aircraft to fly at a minimum altitude of 2,000 ft (609 m) above Manhattan, but Smith's plane was just 913 ft (278 m) above the street when it struck the north side of the Empire State Building between the 78th and 80th floors.

The plane’s wings were sheared off and its gasoline tanks exploded, creating a fire which took 40 minutes to extinguish. 

One of the plane’s engines fell down an elevator shaft, while the other engine flew directly through the building and came out the south side, crashing onto a nearby roof and causing another fire which destroyed a penthouse art studio.

Workmen clearing the wreckage

Lt Col Smith and his two crewmen lost their lives, as did eleven civilians inside the building.

Up to 25 other people – including Betty Lou Oliver – were injured during the incident.

Betty was on the 80th floor when the initial impact occurred, the force of which tossed her out of her stationary elevator cab.

Badly burned by the fire, Betty was reached by first-aid workers and placed in another elevator cab to go down to the ground floor, however, the damaged elevator cables snapped, and Betty was sent hurtling down to the building’s basement.

Betty remained fully conscious during the elevator’s descent. “I started yelling and pounding on the floor. I was going down so fast that I just had to hang onto the sides of the elevator to keep from floating,” she said to her sister while recovering at the hospital, as reported at the time by The Courier-News.

George A. Mount, a manager at the elevator company who inspected the site afterwards, said the elevator shaft’s concrete floor was “crushed like an eggshell”.

All six cables to which the cab was attached were snapped, and the automatic braking cable was also destroyed, meaning it fell without any braking system at all.

What likely saved Betty’s life was the elevator being slowed down by air pressure within the relatively airtight shaft, in addition to the impact at the bottom being cushioned by severed cables piling up in a spring-like spiral on the floor.

After being rescued from the wreckage, Betty was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where she stayed for four months before being discharged. Able to walk, but still requiring the regular use of a wheelchair, Betty continued recovering for several months at her aunt’s house before returning home to Arkansas.

Betty declined any further interviews and media appearances, saying she was “plain not interested” in discussing the incident.

She went on to have three children and seven grandchildren with her husband, Oscar Lee, who passed away in 1986. Betty passed away 13 years later, aged 74, on 24 November 1999.

With her miraculous tale continuing to fascinate people almost a quarter of a century after her death, Betty lives on as a symbol of survival against all odds, and we hope that no one is unfortunate enough to ever break her record.

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