Before September 11, 2001 how many times had New York city skyscrapers been hit by aircraft?

There had been two such accidents with skyscrapers in New York before hair-raising 9/11 attacks.

The first one happened at 9:40 am on Saturday, July 28, 1945. A B-25 Mitchell bomber, piloted in thick fog by Lieutenant Colonel William Franklin Smith, Jr., crashed into the north side of the Empire State Building, between the 79th and 80th floors.

The second one took place in 1946. On the evening of May 20, a United States Army Air Forces Beechcraft C-45F Expediter airplane crashed into the north side of 40 Wall St, as the visibility was poor because of the fog.

More Info: en.wikipedia.org

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28 Comments

Richard D. Boyle

I knew about the B-25 crash in 1945 in which 14 people were killed. The damage to the building was not substantial because of the low speed and small size of the B-25 and because the building was constructed of steel and limestone. On 9-11 you had much larger and much faster and much stronger built jet airliners virtually fully loaded with jet fuel crashing into buildings with glass exterior instead of limestone.

Richard D. Boyle

Marshall Davis, Read the question. It specifies Before September 11, 2001.

Naked Kitty Slave

anthonygriffin, looked up both Munson and Cory Lidle. Munson's crash took place at the Canton-Akron airport. Lidle's crashed into a New York residential building.

Rick Curtner

what about king kong

Ian Swindale

What happened after? I know the Empire State building still stands but what damage did it suffer, etc. Same with 40 Wall Street

John Moore

12 February 2009, a Bombadier DHC8 402 400 crashed into the Clarence centre in New York

Jim Hill

I remember them talking about it during the coverage after 9/11 otherwise I would have guessed "0" as a whole lot did

mkrash

wow I was not sure but I due remember this being a huge arguement that morning when we were standing there watching all of this going down .

anthonygriffin

Keith Rodden, I do recall New York Yankees catcher Thurmond Munson, dying in a plane crash several years ago. I'm just not sure of reason for his personal aircraft crashing & killing him on instantly on impact.

anthonygriffin

"It really boggles the mind," that the crew of the two planes flown into the fog, would risk life & limb in getting to their destination while battling "Mother Nature."

Larry W. Jones

First, I admit I missed the question. Second, the proper term is Army Air Corps (My father served in it from 1943-1945.), as the Air Force was not an independent entity until 1947.