The Hindenburg left Frankfurt, Germany on May 3, 1937, for a scheduled voyage across the Atlantic to Lakehurst’s Naval Air Base carrying 36 passengers and 61 crew members. On May 6, at 7.25 p.m local time, the Hindenburg was engulfed in flames and was utterly destroyed while landing at Lakehurst, New Jersey. Of the 97 persons on board, 35 people fatefully lost their lives. The crash resulted in 35 fatalities on the airship and one ground crew member, but 62 of the total passengers and crew pulled through.
Having operated passenger travel on commercial zeppelins for more than 30 years in which tens of thousands of passengers flew over a million miles, on more than 2,000 flights, without a single injury, the Hindenburg crash brought an end to the age of the rigid passenger airship, together with its perks of speed and luxury.
a little earlier I was coming home from work in NYC and saw the ship overhead, just as a heavy downpour pushed peopleinto the subway entrances. It was scary and I was 5 yrs old and had been working since 1934. Very exciting.
I was coming home from work in NYC when the H’Berg came overhead amidst a sudden downpour as we all rushed to the subway entrances. It was dangersous as I was small and 5 years old having started work when I was two yrs old. The next day I read of the disaster.
Seems like now would be an ideal time to bring back the airship as a vehicle for tourism, especially for areas difficult to access on the ground.