80 years ago yesterday; the Empire State Building plane crash.
Quote:
Saturday 28 July was an extremely foggy day in New York City. Unseen in the low clouds enveloping the city that morning, a B-25 bomber was on a routine transit flight from Massachusetts to Newark Airport in New Jersey. The pilot of the twin-engine medium bomber, which bore the incongruous nickname "Old John Feather Merchant" emblazoned on its nose, was U.S. Army Air Forces Lieutenant Colonel William Smith. On board was his flight mechanic, Staff Sergeant Christopher Domitrovich, a seasoned European Theater combat veteran who had survived his plane being shot down over Holland and escaped from behind enemy lines. Their only passenger was Navy Aviation Machinist Mate Second Class Albert Perna, who was heading home on emergency leave because his brother had just been reported killed in action. The thick fog and rainclouds complicated Smith's navigation as he approached Manhattan.
A few thousand feet below, Coast Guard Hospital Apprentice Second Class Donald Molony gazed up at the Empire State Building from 34th Street. He was from Detroit, Michigan, and was eight months into training in Groton, Connecticut, to become a Pharmacist's Mate (equivalent to today's Coast Guard Health Service Technician or Navy Hospital Corpsman). Only 17 years old, Molony's paygrade would be equivalent to a modern E2. He was close to his widowed mother and called her every week, although he had been so eager to see some action before the war ended that he had convinced her he would go to Canada and join a military of the Commonwealth if she did not give her parental consent to his underage enlistment. On this day, he was on liberty in New York City; it was his last chance to see the sights before he graduated. He had been hoping to take in the view from the top of the world's tallest building, but with the fog frustrating his plans, he considered going to watch a movie.
Lieutenant Colonel Smith, the B-25 pilot, was a highly experienced combat veteran. The 27-year-old West Point graduate had recently returned to the United States after two years of flying missions over Europe as a B-17 bomber pilot. Tall and swaggeringly handsome with a pencil-thin mustache, he looked the part of a decorated squadron commander. Unfortunately, he was apparently overconfident about this routine stateside transit flight, despite the fog. Faced with the deteriorating weather, he considered landing at La Guardia Airport outside the city, but he decided to keep pressing toward his original destination of Newark Airport. Disoriented, but believing he was over Jersey City, Smith flew lower, sending his aircraft barreling through downtown Manhattan. He barely missed several buildings and eventually flew so low that office workers saw his plane fly by beneath them.
