The Hindenburg Disaster

The Hindenburg was a great airship built by the Zeppelin Company. It held over 7 million cubic feet of gas and was 882 feet long only 78 feet shorter than the Titanic. To put the size of this airship into perspective, it was slightly longer than 3 747s placed nose to tail. The power for this massive ship was from 4 1200hp Mercedes motors making her capable of reaching 84.4 mph. The Hindenburg was supposed to be the finest example of German engineering and show the world the superiority of the Third Reich. The picture below illustrates the sizes. The picture above is a photo shot of the Hindenburg less than 10 seconds after the fire started.



On May 6, 1937 at 7pm the historic journey of the Hindenburg came to an end in Lakehurst New Jersey. As the ship prepared to land a spark of flame broke out on the upper tail fin. In a matter of minutes the entire ship was a smoldering wreck laying on the New Jersey soil beneath it. In all 36 people perished in this fire, 35 onboard the ship and 1 US Naval groundsman who was killed by falling debris. The Hindenburg was the fastest and largest airship of the day, a modern and shining example of safety and comfort. The fixtures in the ship were of the highest quality. There was an asbestos lined smoking room in which passengers could enjoy their cigars, pipes, and cigarettes without the fear of blowing everyone up.

Many rumors have circulated about the cause of the fire/explosion ranging from sabotage to industrial accident to alien attack. The fact is that it wasn't a bomb or someone (something) attacking it was simple physics playing the key role. The state of the art fabric used to cover the hull of the ship in conjunction with the painted on coating that was placed on the fabric created a static situation that resulted in a spark that ignited the millions of cubic feet of Hydrogen gas on board. The shocking point of this tragedy is that there was 97 people on the Hindenburg at the time of the explosion and 45 or so under it.

One of the most famous radio broadcasts in history was recorded during the Hindenburg's tragic end. Herbert Morrison, a correspondent with Chicago's WLS, witnessed the terrifying event, along with his sound engineer, Charlie Nehlson.

"It's practically standing still now. They've dropped ropes out of the nose of the ship, and it's been taken a hold of down on the field by a number of men. It's starting to rain again; the rain had slacked up a little bit. The back motors of the ship are just holding it, just enough to keep it from --"

"It burst into flames! Get out of the way! Get out of the way! Get this, Charlie! Get this, Charlie! It's fire and it's crashing! It's crashing terrible! Oh, my! Get out of the way, please! It's burning, bursting into flames and is falling on the mooring mast, and all the folks agree that this is terrible. This is the worst of the worst catastrophes in the world! Oh, it's crashing...oh, four or five hundred feet into the sky, and it's a terrific crash, ladies and gentlemen. There's smoke, and there's flames, now, and the frame is crashing to the ground, not quite to the mooring mast...Oh, the humanity, and all the passengers screaming around here!"

"I told you...I can't even talk to people...around there. It's -- I can't talk, ladies and gentlemen. Honest, it's just laying there, a mass of smoking wreckage, and everybody can hardly breathe and talk...I, I'm sorry. Honest, I can hardly breathe. I'm going to step inside where I cannot see it. Charlie, that's terrible. I -- Listen folks, I'm going to have to stop for a minute, because I've lost my voice...This is the worst thing I've ever witnessed....."

This was a portion of the recording from that evening. On the right there are 2 links to information about this fire and crash. One is a link to a page that has the text and a recording of Mr Morrison that day. The other link leads you to indepth information on the crash.