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The Hindenburg Disaster
Part I
In the 1930s travel by air was becoming a favorite mode of transportation. Travel by airship was more favored than by airplane. One of the most famous airships was the LZ 129 Hindenburg. This airship (or zeppelin) was the pride of Nazi Germany. Measuring at 804 feet long (just 80 feet shorter than the RMS Titanic) it was the largest aircraft to ever be constructed.
The airship contained ten Maybach engines that could power five tandem engine cars. It was initially supposed to be designed to be powered by helium lifting gas which was non-flammable. However, the United States government had a monopoly on the world supply of helium and feared that other countries would use the gas for military purpose. Therefore, it banned the export of helium gas and the Hindenburg was reengineered to be powered by hydrogen gas (which is flammable).
In spite of this risk, the Hindenburg quickly became the most popular and famous airship after its first flight in 1936. Its interior included 25 small two-passenger cabins, a large dining room, a writing room, a mess hall, and even a smoking lounge (that was highly regulated by stewards). The windows were purposely slanted on both decks so that passengers and crew could have a perfect view of the scenery beneath them. Initially, German propaganda minister (Josef Goebbles) wanted the airship to be named after Adolf Hitler. Instead, the designer (Hugo Eckener) named it after Paul von Hindenburg (the late German president who had preceded Hitler).
Part II
Throughout 1936 to 1937, the Hindenburg made a total of 63 flights. During the 1936 Summer Olympics, the airship conducted a low-level flyover of the stadium. The airship was also used to pioneer airmail service across the Atlantic. On its first flight to North America, the Hindenburg carried more than 1059 kg of mail in sixty mail sacks (a rarity for that time).
On May 3, 1937, the Hindenburg took off from the German city of Frankfurt. Onboard the airship were 36 passengers and 61 crew members. In command, was Captain Max Pruss. Captain Pruss was a highly experienced pilot who had made more than 100 flights across the Atlantic Ocean. This was to be his first flight as commanding Captain of the Hindenburg. Unknown to him, it would also be his last.
The Hindenburg arrived in the United States on May 6. It then flew to Manchester Township, New Jersey, and approached the Lakehurst Naval Air Station. At 7:21 p.m., while it was at an altitude of 295 feet, the Hindenburg's mooring lines were dropped to the landing crew who began to connect them to ground winches. Four minutes later however, people on the ground began to notice blue flames by the airship's port fin. Seconds later, a massive explosion erupted from the stern. And within seconds, the Hindenburg was completely engulfed in flames.
Part III
Among the ground crew were a number of news reporters. One of them was a photographer named, Sam Shere. When the explosion occurred, Shere was positioned by the mooring mast where the Hindenburg was to be docked. Equipped with a speed camera, Shere remembered taking the photo, "I had two shots in my big Speed Graphic but I didn't even have time to get it up to my eye. I literally 'shot' from my hip. It was over so fast there was nothing else to do." After taking a single photograph, Shere went to help assist in rescuing passengers and crew from the burning airship.
Another one of the journalists on the scene was, Herbert Morrison. On May 6, Morrison was assigned to Chicago's radio station (WLS) to cover the arrival of the Hindenburg for a delayed broadcast. As he began to describe the landing, the airship exploded, and the radio recorded his horrified reaction. Morrison's broadcast would shock the world, it's starting to rain again; it's... the rain had (oh) slacked up a little bit. The back motors of the ship are just holding it (uh) just enough to keep it from...It's burst into flames! 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 the... and it's falling on the mooring mast and all the folks agree that this is terrible, this is one of the worst catastrophes in the world. Oh it's... [unintelligible] its flames... Crashing, oh! Four- or five-hundred feet into the sky and it... it's a terrific crash, ladies and gentlemen. It's smoke, and it's flames now; and the frame is crashing to the ground, not quite to the mooring mast. Oh, the humanity, all the passengers. screaming around here. I told you; it... I can't even talk to people, their friends are on there!".
Epilogue
Within seconds of the explosion rescuers descended on the scene to rescue passengers and crew. Of a total of 97 people on the Hindenburg, 35 of them (13 passengers and 22 crew members) would perish in the fire or die in the hospital. In addition, a member of the landing crew (Allen Hagaman) was killed by falling debris, for a total of 36 fatalities. The worst loss of life occurred in the bow of the airship where 12 crew members were manning their posts. The explosion from the stern caused a huge wall of flame to burst out through airship. Only three of these crewmen would survive the disaster.
After the disaster, Herbert Morrison later served in the US Army during World War II. After the war, he continued to work as a news broadcaster until he retired in the late 1970s. Prior to his retirement, he served as a technical adviser for the 1975 disaster movie, The Hindenburg. He died on January 10, 1989.
In spite of the carnage, most of those onboard would survive the explosion. Among them was, Captain Pruss. Pruss had initially escaped the burning wreck with only minor injuries, but reentered it to rescue a close friend (Willy Speck) who was trapped in the wreckage of the airship's gondola. In doing so, Pruss was far more severely burned and nearly died in the hospital. Despite of his heroic efforts, Speck (who had suffered a skull fracture) would die of his wounds. Captain Pruss would be one of the few who continued to advocate for airship travel. Sadly, his dream was never realized. He died from pneumonia on November 28, 1960.
After the disaster, the public lost confidence in the safety of airship travel. This would mark the end of commercial airship travel and the airship era as a whole. While the cause of the explosion has never been decisively concluded (most people today believe it was caused by static electricity from a storm-cloud), the use of hydrogen gas was determined to be a primary cause of the fire's vast rate of propagation. Today, operators of blimps and hot-air balloons all prefer to use helium instead of hydrogen to power their aircraft.
For his incredible photograph of the Hindenburg, Sam Shere was awarded the Editor and Publisher award for best news picture of 1937. He continued to work as a photographer for the rest of his life. And many of his pictures were later published in LIFE Magazine. He died on June 8, 1982. Today his image of the Hindenburg is considered the most famous photograph of the airship's destruction. Even after all those who survived or witnessed the explosion passed away, it continues to capture the tragic demise of the Hindenburg and the end of the era of the airship.
https://www.iconichistoricalphotos.com/the-hindenburg-disaster/
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2012/05/the_hindenberg_75_years_later.html
https://www.history.com/news/the-hindenburg-disaster-9-surprising-facts
https://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/unforgettable-photos-of-the-hindenburg-disaster-and-fatal-fire
https://www.airships.net/zeppelin-mail/hindenburg-covers/
https://www.icp.org/browse/archive/constituents/sam-shere?all/all/all/all/0
