Similar but not the same as the 9/11 tragedy that befell the WTC twin towers in New York in 2001, so today 70 years ago which coincided with July 28, 1945, a tragedy occurred that befell the tallest building in New York at that time, namely when an airplane Mitchell's B-25 bomber crashes into the Empire State Building.
Quoted from smithsonianmag.com, on the morning of July 28, 1945, US Air Force bombers piloted by Lieutenant Colonel William Smith attempted to reach Newark Airport. Unlike the tragedy of 9/11, what happened to B-25 and the Empire State Building was not the result of acts of sabotage and terrorism, but B-25 shot the Empire State Building due to bad weather at that time.
Smith, piloting a B-25 Bomber, had been dispatched from the military base in Bedford, Massachusetts, to pick up his commander in Newark. That morning a thick fog shrouded New York City. The ground crew had previously advised Smith that with zero visibility, trying to land was a bad idea.
In the fog, he finds himself off course and flying over New York. Smith managed to make a turn around the Chrysler Building, Rockefeller Center, and what is now known as the Helmsley Building. At 9:40 am, the legendary bomber hit the 78th, 79th and 80th floors of the Empire State Building.
It was a Saturday, so most people didn't come to work. However, 14 people, including three crew members and eight employees of the Catholic War Relief Office, died as a result of the incident. The accident also caused a fire and tore an 18 by 20 foot hole in the north wall of the building. One engine even crashed into the building and crashed into the penthouse on the other side.
The Empire State Building with a height of 380 meters, in 1931 became the tallest building in the world, and in 2017, became the 31st tallest building in the world, where the number one position is occupied by the Burj Khalifa in Dubai which has a height of 830 meters.
At first glance about the B-25 Mitchell, this bomber is also closely related to the history of the Indonesian Air Force (formerly Air Force). This is because the bomber made by North American has carried out many military operations in Indonesia, both when it was used by the Dutch, and after it was transferred to the Air Force.
It is said that the Air Force received 20 units of B-25 bombers from ML-KNIL (ML-KNIL (Militaire Luchtvaart van het Koninklijk Nederlands-Indisch Leger) to form Bomber Squadron 1 based in Cililitan, Jakarta (now Halim Perdanakusuma). The Air Force received four B-25 variants from the Netherlands, namely the B-25H, B-25J, B-25 transport variant and B-25 aerial shooting variant.
The B-25H was designed as a bomber, characterized by its glazed nose for a bombardier. While the B-25J is designed more for surface attack missions, which is characterized by its nose dominated by eight 12.7 mm caliber machine guns. Not only that, they added another pair of heavy machine guns on either side of the cockpit, plus one each on the sides of the plane's waist. Lastly on the tail, there is a tail gunner armed with a pair of machine guns.
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