The Evening Star (May 21, 1946)
Plane crash into skyscraper killing five probed by Army
NEW YORK (AP) – A twin-engined Army plane, groping blindly through a 400-foot overcast, crashed into the 58th floor of the 71-story Bank of the Manhattan Co. Building in the financial district last night, bringing death to all its occupants, a WAC lieutenant and four Army officers.
The plane disintegrated in a blinding flash of flames after exploding against the rear of the Wall Street building – the world’s fourth highest – and sent showers of flaming debris hurtling to the pavement. The building is 937 feet high.
One witness said “the flames seemed to pour down from floor to floor.” The fires, however, were extinguished quickly. Police estimates put the number of persons in the building at the time of the accident at from 500 to 2,000. The building has about 5,000 occupants during the day.
While none of the persons in the structure was injured, five were struck by flaming particles in the street.
Within an hour after the crash, an investigating board of qualified Army Air Forces officers was appointed by Col. Clarence P. Kane, commanding officer at the Newark Army air base, the public relations office announced today. The six-man board went at once to the scene of the crash.
It was the second such accident for New York in less than a year. Last July 28, an Army B-25 bomber flew into the 79th floor of the 102-story Empire State Building, killing three fliers and 11 office workers.
The public relations officers at Newark Airport, where the victims of last night’s tragedy were based, said the plane – a C-45 Beechcraft – was on a routine navigational training flight from Smyrna, Tennessee, to Newark. The casualties were assigned to the Atlantic Overseas Air Technical Service Command.
The dead were listed by the War Department as:
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Maj. Mansel R. Campbell. 27, the pilot, of Pontiac, Michigan. His wife Mona lives at Evart, Michigan. They have one child, Ross Edward, 6.
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Capt. Tom L. Hall, 29, of Austin, Texas. He listed his beneficiary as his wife, Helen Lindseth Hall of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. They have two sons, Randall, 4, and Kenneth, 1.
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First Lt. Robert L. Stevenson, 25, of the Bronx, New York.
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First Lt. Angelo A. Ross, 28, of Whitehall, New York.
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WAC 1st Lt. Mary E. Bond of Newton, Pennsylvania.
Capt. Hall took a leading part in the inquiry into the Empire State Building crash, his widow said in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He was acting in his capacity as assistant operations officer at the Newark Field.
Plane rips 15-foot hole
Police said the name of Capt. J. M. Collison had been inscribed on the fuselage of the plane, leading to their erroneous early report that he was aboard.
The plane ripped a 15-foot hole through the corner of the building as it plowed into the offices of the Atlas Corp. The bank building fronts on 40 Wall Street and runs back into 33 Pine Street.
Police said the pilot and another officer were thrown clear of the plane by the impact, and their bodies were found on the rug in the Atlas offices. The other bodies were found slammed into the front part of the plane.
A valise containing some of Lt. Bond’s clothing was hurled from the plane and landed intact on the ledge of a 16th-floor window of the building at 30 Pine Street, across the street from the crash. A wing and the landing gear fell into Pine Street, along with chunks of masonry and bits of broken glass.
Wheel bounds four stories
One of the wheels hit Pine Street and bounded four stories to a building opposite the scene of the crash.
The control tower at Newark Airport reported it was last in contact with the plane’s pilot at 7:08 p.m. after previously giving him clearance to land.
The tower operator said first clearance was given at 6:56 p.m., when the plane circled the field. After waiting about 10 minutes, the operator said, the tower contacted the plane and learned it was five miles southwest of the field. That was the last contact.
An eyewitness, J. J. Phillips, attached to a U.S. Treasury office at 50 Church Street, said he heard the roar of the low-flying plane and anticipated the crash.
“I looked out of my window just as it struck the building,” he said. “There was a great flash of flame and the ship fell apart.”
Sees flames pass window
Mrs. Emily Defeno of the Bronx, an employee of the War Assets Administration, who was in a lunchroom on the seventh floor at the time of the crash, said she heard the crash and saw flames pass the window.
“The shock was so great that we were stunned for a moment,” she said.
Another witness, John Callan, a night watchman at the United States Trust Co. Building, directly opposite the scene of the accident, said he was on the roof of the 10-story building when he saw the plane coming from the East River, “obviously too low.”
“There was a terrific flash and a loud crash, followed by the sound of an explosion,” he said. “The shock shook the United States Trust Building, and I grabbed hold of a girder to keep from being knocked down. Fire started in the wreckage of the plane almost immediately.”