The Hindenburg disaster occurred on May 6, 1936, when the German airship caught fire and crashed to the ground while attempting to land at a Navy air base in Lakehurst, New Jersey. The cause of the disaster is still unknown, but theories include static electricity and sabotage. Of the 97 people on board, 36 died. The disaster marked the end of the popularity of airships for commercial flying.
If you’ve ever heard the phrase “oh, humanity,” you’ve heard of the Hindenburg disaster, perhaps unknowingly. At a time when aviation was still in its infancy, the German company Luftschiffbau Zeppelin created the largest airship that ever took to the skies. LZ129 Hindenburg was an astonishing 803.8 feet (245 meters) long and 135.1 feet (41 meters) in circumference, roughly the size of the ocean-going Titanic. It completed many successful voyages in its first year of service and was the first transatlantic commercial airship, but on a rainy evening at a Navy air base in Lakehurst, New Jersey, the airship came to a spectacular and fiery end.
Hindenburg’s three-day transatlantic crossing, which began on Monday evening May 3, 1936, was uneventful but due to bad weather that seemed to haunt the voyage. At midnight, the airship encountered its first storm over the North Sea and, by dawn, had dropped from its usual cruising altitude of 800 to 1,000 feet (244 to 305 meters) to 2,100 feet (640 meters) to fly over the storms as she followed the English Channel. The Hindenburg resumed a normal cruising altitude at noon on Tuesday as she passed southwest of Ireland, but again encountered strong Atlantic headwinds. Wednesday she spent fairly leisurely as she sailed within 808 miles (1,300 km) of Newfoundland, Canada. Captain Lehmann reportedly spent some time that evening in the lounge playing his accordion for the passengers.
The next day, May 6, 1936, at about 3:00 am Eastern Standard Time, the Hindenburg’s great shadow glided over New York City as it swept across the city. International passengers were treated to views of the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, Harlem, the Bronx and a baseball game in progress between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field. While the airship had a chance to land at 4:00 a.m., a thunderstorm in the area caused Captain Pruss to instead opt for a scenic ride on the east coast, hoping the weather conditions would improve before he had to disembark. As hoped, the skies began to clear and at 7:00 a.m. the mighty Hindenburg approached Naval Air Base Lakehurst, New Jersey to land. A crowd of journalists, dignitaries and supporters were in attendance for the noteworthy event.
The starboard mooring line fell to the ground 260 feet (79 meters) below at 7:23 am, just as witnesses saw a blue arc ahead of the tail fin, followed by a huge fiery explosion. Flames engulfed the entire rear of the Hindenburg and the airship began to fall, stern first, to the ground. Fire erupted on the skin of the ship, fueled by the hydrogen within, as the nose of the bow shot flames skyward, following the stern down.
The ground crews below scrambled for their lives with the colossal fiery vessel engulfing the sky above. Many passengers and crew frantically jumped for their lives through the broken windows, some attempting to slip mooring lines as the staggering catastrophe unfolded. As soon as the gigantic ship collapsed into a fiery pile, the shore crews rushed back amid smoke and towering flames to help the fleeing passengers who drove the ship ashore. Many people were pulled from the burning wreck, while others miraculously escaped unharmed. The whole disaster happened in just 32 seconds.
There are many newsreels of the Hindenburg disaster and a live radio broadcast by Chicago reporter Herbert Morrison. Morrison’s genuine devastation at seeing the disaster echoed in his words. Among his archived reports of him is the now famous line, “Oh, the humanity!” Of the 61 crew and 36 passengers, 22 crew, 13 passengers and 1 ground crew member died. Two dogs on board also died.
There are many theories as to what caused the Hindenburg disaster, although no official discovery has ever been made. Favorite theories include the “static electricity theory” which claims that the buildup of electric charge on the airship’s flammable skin triggered the disaster, but this theory has also been challenged.
It might be interesting to note that Dr. Hugo Eckener took over Luftschiffbau Zeppelin after WW1. Eckener was a strong-willed, yet peaceful man, in contrast to the growing National Socialist Party in Germany, better known as the Nazi Party. His contempt for Adolf Hitler was well known. However, he was reluctantly forced to accept large sums of money from the then fledgling party to have the Hindenburg built. For this reason, at the request of his investors, he wore Nazi swastikas on his tail fins.
At the time the Hindenburg set sail, the Third Reich hadn’t yet made its mark on the world and used the ship to drop propaganda pamphlets and promote the holiday. It was Eckener’s hope that the airship would be used to unite nations and promote peace, making the disaster all the more tragic. The demise of the Hindenburg ended the short-lived popularity of airships for commercial flying. Although the Zeppelin Company continues today as Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik GmbH, the airships are much smaller, intended for pleasure travel, advertising, broadcasting live events from an aerial platform, and other observation missions.
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