Aftermath of a B-25 Bomber flying into the Empire State Building, 1945

Holy shit all the people just standing there at the hole in the side of the building…
- This was pre-OSHA. Now I can't even reach up to adjust the fan cage on my own.
  
  Regardless of "can" or "can't," I wouldn't stand on a modern balcony that had passed inspection at that height, let alone a crumbly unsecured hole that has made no promise to maintain its integrity. Even if there were hypothetically no risk, I see no rail or even, like, a cable.
  A strong gust of wind or particularly intrusive thought could easily ruin one or more lives there.
- I wonder if it was likely this was the most exciting thing these people had ever seen, or close to it?
- These pictures where taken back when people knew how to party!

I read it as B52 at first and wondered how the building survives
- You can take multiple band members and chuck them at a building with little to no effect. The equipment too. It's only when you get to the tour bus that it tends to leave a mark.
  
  What about their Chrysler which is as big as a whale?

Betty had a shit fucking day.
Elevator operator Betty Lou Oliver was thrown from her elevator car on the 80th floor and suffered severe burns. First aid workers placed her on another elevator car to transport her to the ground floor, but the cables supporting that elevator had been damaged in the incident, and it fell 75 stories, ending up in the basement.[13] Oliver survived the fall due to the softening cushion of air created by the falling elevator car within this elevator shaft; however, she had suffered a broken pelvis, back and neck when rescuers found her amongst the rubble.[14] This remains the world record for the longest survived elevator fall.
- Especially bad when you consider the elevator shouldn't have fallen in the first place.
  Elisha Otis invented his automatic elevator brakes in 1853 -- designed to instantly stop cars from falling if the cables snap ... and the Empire State Building used Otis safety elevators.
  Given how dead simple and reliable the safety mechanism is something must have gone horrible wrong.
  
  A bit more on Betty and the incident:
  https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2023/10/how-an-elevator-attendant-survived-a-1-000-ft-fall-down-the-empire-state-building-759670
  Tldr; she lived till 74 and had a family and children, so it looks like it all worked out after nearly dying two or three times from the crash/burn/elevator crash.
- That's like one of my worst fears
  
  Being thrown from an elevator or elevator falling 75 stories or airplane hitting the building?
- Record setting go-getter
- Holy fuck

Crashed due to low visibility in fog.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1945_Empire_State_Building_B-25_crash

Don’t build em like they used to.
- either that or they don't make jet fuel like they used to
  in before "um, actually, the B-25 was a propeller-driven aircraft and therefore obviously did not use jet fuel"
  
  I mean that and a b25 weighs like 40k lbs and a 767 weighs like 400k lbs, and flies twice as fast.
  
  Very very different crashes.
  The planes that hit the twin towers were bigger, going faster, and had more fuel.
  The twin towers themselves were also built with a different skyscraper design at well that used fewer steel beams. I don't remember what the names of the skyscraper design types were but I remember a 9-11 history channel program going into it.
  
  Jet fuel can't melt steel memes.
  
  Either that, or Bush did 9/11

Should have used jet fuel!!! I hear it can melt steel beans
- I thought it was that it "can't" melt steel beams
  
  Beams? Of course not.
  Beans? Absolutely.
  
  Wake up, sheeple.
  
  That's what they want you to think

Man that is some insane photos and damage.
Both because it's impressive and minor all at once. The fire damage looks far more severe and like it hit multiple floors and yet the exterior stone is barely wedged out of place.
You can even still see the debris of the plane.

This confirms Things were more solid in the past?
- Possible. Though a B-25 is smaller and much slower than a 737.
  
  Also weighs much less.
  
  Not to mention compared to a 767.
  
  A 767-200, like the one that hit the tower in 2001, carries roughly 3 Fully loaded B-25s worth of FUEL alone.
- I mean the modern skyscraper is definitely built very different these days.
  The world trade center used hollow exterior support so they could avoid having support columns interrupting the floor plans and large central support columns but you can see what happens when the exterior support gets damaged and heat causes sag from the weight.
  Advanced techniques usually mean less material and faster build times.
  You know what was even more solid? A huge pile of rocks in the shape of a pyramid.
- B-25: 33,000lbs @ 225 mph
  vs
  767-200: 300,000 lbs @ 500 mph
  so, roughly 10x the weight at 2x the speed
  
  If those numbers are correct, that's 40x the energy.
- Not the bomber.
- Opposite. This confirms planes back in the day were flimsy as shit.
  
  Those bombers back in the day needs to be made of lighter materials so they could carry those bombs and ammos for the . 30 machine guns.
- Different/less fuel I imagine. The problem with WTC was the fires kept burning which weakened the steel enough for it to collapse under its own weight.
  Edit: Admittedly, I read the headline as "B-52" but I think the comment stands.
  
  yes the B 25 actually lost its engines in the impact that caused two other separate sites with respective fires

On the morning of 9/11, after the first plane had hit the first tower, my dad, a news junkie, called me to tell me a plane hit the WTC, but I was busy with work and I told him I couldn't talk but I hoped it wasn't too bad. I assumed it was some sort of accident like this (which I already knew about).
Then he called a little while later to tell me that a second plane had hit the other tower...

Empire State Building: "Oh no, anyways..."

I'm curious how they went about repairing this. Do they cut out sections and weld it together or what?
- I don't think they did repair this. That plane looks like a write off.
  
  Fun fact they actually was able to repurpose it it is now part of the Empire State Building, recycling at its finest.