Posted on 05/06/2017 12:02:17 PM PDT by BenLurkin
The disaster struck without the least warning. The ship had angled its blunt nose toward the mooring mast, the spider-like landing lines had been snaked down and the ground crew had grasped the ropes from the nose, when the explosion roared out, scattering ground crew and spectators like frightened sheep.
The passengers, who were waving gayly a minute before from the observation windows, were so stunned they could not describe late what happened. Some jumped to the sandy landing field along with members of the crew. Others seemed to have been pitched from the careening skyliner as it made its death plunge.
The heat drove back would-be rescuers, so it could not be determined for how many the Hindenburg made a burning tomb. Fire departments from nearby communities converged on the field and soon had streams of water playing on the broken air liner. The flames still enveloped the outline of the ship, apparently feeding on the fuel oil supply with the Hindenburg carried for its Diesel engines.
Somewhere in the glowing furnace were the two dogs, 340 pounds of mail, and the ton of baggage which it had aboard.
Thirty-one survivors were accounted for in hospitals and other places in the Lakehurst area at 10:45 p.m.
...
Even as the flames were consuming the dirigible, passengers were arriving at the air station with luggage for the return trip. The schedule called for a rapid turnabout this time, with departure toward midnight tonight.
(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
The humanity!
My first US Navy Tech School(”A” School) was in the Hagar built for the Graf Zeppelin Co. Hangar One US Naval Air Station Lakehurst New Jersey. Was kinda neat. This hangar was so HUGE that it made it’s own weather.
I think it is amazing there any survivors of horrific crash.
Same weather thing would happen inside the blimp hangers at the Tustin Air Station
Edward R Murrow ?
No, it was built for the Navy with the contract awarded in 1919 with construction starting in 1920 and completion in 1921. It was first used to construct the USS Shenandoah (1922 - 23). The first German built ship housed there was the USS Los Angeles (war reparations). LZ 127 (Graf Zeppelin) wasn't built until 1928.
Trivia - the three US built rigid airships all broke up in flight; the German built machine did not.
CHA! The Hindenburg did crash but it did give us Led Zep! You ever read about their 1970 tour when they ran into “Frau Eva von Zeppelin”?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Led_Zeppelin_European_Tour_1970
CG Air Station Miami,Opalocka Fl was a dirigible air field.
When the folks bought this 1776 farm and house in 67 they began to restore it. When they tore up the flooring of layers and layers of linoleum and all kinds of other crap,way down was newspaper and one of them was the front page of the Hindinburg
It’s a pity in a way that these things became discredited and failed largely due to this incident. Old newsreel footage and a few movies show what had to be an amazing and pleasurable travel experience, floating along in the equivalent of an airborne ocean liner. I’d love to have experienced it, well, other than the final flight of the Hindenberg.
I saw (I think at Facebook) earlier today the reminisces of the last living surviver of that crash ... apparently her mother threw her brother out the window, pulled back, then threw her out. I imagine the mother perished.
The US had been planning a major commercial landing field near Washington, DC at the time. After the Hindenburg, that swamp land was idle for a few decades but has now been turned into a nature preserve, a quiet haven surrounded by suburban sprawl. All the streets nearby have airline-connected names (Fairchild, Lockheed, Piper, etc).
Herb Morrison.
Bookmark
It is hard to say whether dirigible travel would have been commercially viable, due to the slow speeds involved.
They seem to be making a comeback. They are all the rage in domestic surveillance.
My mother’s birth date, and we celebrate today (with the Derby). Yup, she’s 80. It’s her little claim to fame.
I heard on FOX that the last survivor was 8 then, a boy whose mother tossed him out. Did not mention if mother made it.
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