PLANE CRASHES INTO “SKYSCRAPER”

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 90, Issue 117, 22 May 1946, Page 5

PLANE CRASHES INTO “SKYSCRAPER”

MANHATTAN BANK FIVE OCCUPANTS KILLED FIRES IN BUILDING 4 EXTINGUISHED Recd. 6.40 p.m. New York, May 20. A twin-engined Army transport plane, containing five persons, crashed into the rear of the 90-storey Bank of Manhattan Company building, in Wall Street, setting fire to the 58th floor. Police and firemen rushed to the building as flames were seen where the plane struck. The firemen extinguished a fire on the 58th floor, also one which started on the 24th floor. Parts of the plane fell into Pine Street, which runs at the rear of the building, but, there were few people about. Some, however, were struck by falling debris and flaming particles. All five bodies of the occupants, including the pilot (an Army captain) and one woman, believed to be a first lieutenant in the W.A.C., were recovered from the wreckage of the forward part of the plane. The plane, when it struck, made a 15ft. square hole in the wall of the building. The plane exploded and set fire to various offices, but the plane itself was not burned.

I Armv officials informed the police ‘hat the plane, & C 45, left an Army base in Smyrna, Tennessee, with five persons aboard, for Newark airport. There was a moderate fog, with half-a-mile visibility, and it is estimated the ceiling was 400 ft. over lower Manhattan when the crash occurred. ! The Bank of Manhattan Company [building is several miles south of the Empire State Building, against which ian Army bomber crashed- last July, ik’lling 14, including three occupants !of the plane.