The most famous air ship disaster occurred on May 6, 1937. The Hindenburg was the largest dirigible ever made. Since it was German, it was called a “zeppelin”. It was designed to make long flights and the year before, it had made 10 trips to the U.S., uneventfully. On May 3, it took off from Frankfurt on its first flight of 1937. It was flying half capacity with only 36 passengers, out of a possible 70. When it arrived over New Jersey, there was bad weather in the landing area, so Captain Max Pruss had to kill time by flying in circles. At 6:22 P.M., the all-clear signal was given and the zeppelin was maneuvered to the mooring mast at the field in Lakehurst. At 7:25, a fire broke out that consumed the ship. It took less than 40 seconds. Amazingly, only 35 of the total of passengers and crew were killed. 23 of the 36 passengers survived, but many of the survivors were badly burned. Capt. Pruss went down with his ship, but did not “go down with his ship”. Since 1937, there have been several theories as to the cause.
A possible cause was sabotage. One of the suspects was Joseph Spah. He was a German acrobat who was travelling with his German shepherd. He made several trips to the freight room to feed her. Spah survived the fire. He was suspected by Pruss and several of the crew of planting a bomb, but no credible evidence points to him. The FBI cleared him. Another possibility was Eric Spehl. He was a crewman who may have been anti-Nazi. He died in the fire. A.A. Hoehling advanced this theory in his book “Who Destroyed the Hindenburg?” His book was turned into the fictional movie “Hindenburg” in 1975.
Another possibility was lightning, but no eyewitness saw any lightning. Some did see fabric move as though the highly flammable hydrogen was leaking. Others saw a dim blue flame near the stern where the fire broke out. This might have been caused by static electricity or St. Elmo’s Fire. Some theorists have deduced that the spark set the “incendiary paint” that coated the canvas on fire. But the paint theory has been debunked. This leaves the most likely cause as static electricity ignited leaking gas.
Below is the footage and commentary by newsman Herb Morrison.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindenburg_disaster
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-hindenburg-disaster
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