What happened? .
The North American B-25 Mitchell medium bomber was called "Old John Feather Merchant," and had been used just for training. It had never seen combat and its bomb-bay doors were welded shut. When Germany surrendered, and training duty had been finished, the mechanics stripped away the olive drab paint and revealed its bare shiny aluminum.
With the war over, this B-25 had been refurbished with benches and other amenities, and was being used mostly to transport politicians and high ranking military personnel. It was based in Texas and had hosted 32 training crews in its lifetime.
The pilot on this last flight of the Feather Merchant was Colonel William Franklin Smith, Jr. He was a heavily decorated B-17 pilot that had recently returned from flying more than 50 missions in 18 months over Germany and France. He was on a flight from Bedford, Mass., to pick up his commanding officer at Newark, New Jersey en route to Sioux Falls, S.D.
Sergeant Christopher Domitrovich, the B-25's crew chief, was also aboard. Colonel Smith was both navigator and pilot. At the last minute a young sailor Machinist Mate Albert Pema, came aboard on a special furlough. His brother had been killed during a kamikaze attack on the destroyer Luce, and he was going home to be with his parents.
Colonel Smith took off from Bedford at 8:55 a.m. as "Army 0577." Despite the bad weather conditions, he
The North American B-25 medium bomber.
was not flying an instrument flight plan, but was flying "contact," (visual flight rules) depending on ground references. He became lost, and passed up an opportunity to land at LaGuardia Field when he appeared unannounced in their landing pattern. He insisted on flying contact to Newark. At about 9:50 a.m., he apparently mistook some bridge and river landmarks, since he lowered his landing gear and must have thought he was approaching Newark Airport as he descended.
Colonel Smith was flying at over 200 miles an hour about 500 feet above Manhattan. As the aircraft screamed down 42nd street, he made an abrupt turn over Rockefeller Center, then, banking sharply left, then right again, he found himself flying almost straight down Fifth Avenue.
His gear was coming up, his engines (Pratt and Whitney radial engines, weighing 2,700 pounds each) were at full power, and his nose was in a climbing attitude when. the 12-ton B-25 slammed into the 79th floor of (he fog-enshrouded Empire State Building, 975 feet above the ground. He and the two passengers were killed instantly. Eleven other people were killed, and 26 people were seriously injured.
The aircraft's high-octane fuel from the ruptured tanks exploded, hurtling flames racing across the
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