Article of the Week - Betty Lou Oliver

B-25 Empire State Building crash
Elevator attendant Betty Lou Oliver
plummeted 75 stories and lived!

Betty Lou Oliver (July 9, 1925 - March 8, 1994) is best known as the 1940s elevator attendant for the Empire State Building who survived two large accidents on the same day.

Oliver was working on the 80th story of the building on July 28, 1945. On that day, due to thick fog a B-25 Mitchell bomber crashed into the north side of the Empire State Building. The plane struck the 79th floor of the building. Oliver was thrown from her post and badly burned in the accident, though she survived, while 14 others did not.

When rescuers got to her they decided to lower her via the elevator, unaware that the cables had been weakened to breaking point. Once the elevator doors closed, the cables snapped and Oliver plummeted 75 stories to the basement. Oliver survived but again had to be rescued and was later treated at the hospital for serious injuries. The thousand feet of elevator cable had fallen to the bottom of the shaft, creating a softer landing surface. The rapid compression of the air also likely helped slow the elevator's fall. This descent still stands as the Guinness World Record for the longest survived elevator fall ever recorded. Five months later, Oliver returned with an elevator inspector, who complimented her "guts" in riding the elevators to the full height of the building on that visit.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Lake Baikal"