When a small plane crashed into an Upper East Side apartment tower on Wednesday, the tragedy resonated in a very particular way for Therese Fortier Willig, who saw the news on television in her home in St. Petersburg, Fla.

It took her back 61 years.

Mrs. Willig, 81, was at work on the 79th floor of the Empire State Building on a Saturday morning in July 1945 when an American military aircraft smashed into the north side of the building. Mrs. Willig and a handful of her co-workers ran from the flames — the plane hit the 78th and 79th floors — and shut themselves inside an office on the far side of the building, gasping in the thick smoke. They waited there until firefighters rescued them and then they walked down a long, dark staircase to safety.

“The only time it ever comes to my mind is usually when I hear something like that,” Mrs. Willig said yesterday, referring to the crash that killed the Yankee pitcher Cory Lidle and his flight instructor. “It’s a long time ago.”

A stray detail got her reminiscing.

The military plane, a B-25 bomber, crashed when its pilot became lost in heavy fog over Manhattan. It gouged a huge hole in the building, and one of its engines was thrown forward and out the other side.