The airship Hindenburg bursts into flames at Lakehurst, New Jersey
On this day · 6 May 1937
A German hydrogen Zeppelin caught fire over its New Jersey mooring mast, and the age of passenger airships died with it.
On May 6, 1937, the German Zeppelin LZ 129 Hindenburg arrived over Naval Air Station Lakehurst after a transatlantic crossing. At 7:25 p.m., as ground crews reached for its mooring lines, the hydrogen-filled hull caught fire near the tail and erupted into a fireball.
The airship fell roughly 200 feet and burned almost completely within seconds. Of the 97 people aboard, 35 died, along with one member of the ground crew — 36 deaths in all, though most passengers and crew somehow survived.
Radio reporter Herb Morrison, recording a routine arrival, broke down on air.
“Oh, the humanity!”
Newsreel footage of the blaze played in cinemas worldwide, and public confidence in the giant rigid airship never recovered. The exact ignition source was never proven, but the disaster effectively ended commercial hydrogen airship travel — the future belonged to the airplane.
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