Betty Lou Oliver (USA) survived a plunge of 75 stories (over 300 m or 1,000 ft) in a lift in the Empire State Building in New York, USA, on 28 July 1945, after an American B-25 bomber crashed into the building in thick fog.

The plunge ended in the basement, and Oliver had to be cut out of the mangled elevator. All the lift cables - including the safety cable - were severed and the lift was literally in free-fall. According to an article in Elevator World magazine, the impact was cushioned by the severed cables piling up in spring-like spiral on the lift shaft floor. The lift was also slowed down by air pressure in the relatively airtight lift shaft.