![]() Captain Pruss ordered aft engines full astern at 7:14 p.m. All engines idled ahead and the airship began to slow. At 7:11 p.m., it turned back toward the landing field and valved gas. Although the high landing was a common procedure for American airships, the Hindenburg had performed this maneuver only a few times in 1936 while landing in Lakehurst.Īt 7:09 p.m., the airship made a sharp full-speed left turn to the west around the landing field because the ground crew was not ready. ![]() This type of landing maneuver would reduce the number of ground crewmen but would require more time. This was to be a high landing, known as a flying moor because the airship would drop its landing ropes and mooring cable at a high altitude, and then be winched down to the mooring mast. As this would leave much less time than anticipated to service and prepare the airship for its scheduled departure back to Europe, the public was informed that they would not be permitted at the mooring location or be able to come aboard the Hindenburg during its stay in port.Īround 7:00 p.m., at an altitude of 650 feet (200 m), the Hindenburg made its final approach to the Lakehurst Naval Air Station. ![]() that the storms had passed, Pruss directed the airship back to Lakehurst to make its landing almost half a day late. After passing over the field at 4:00 p.m., Pruss took passengers on a tour over the seashore of New Jersey while waiting for the weather to clear. Advised of the poor weather conditions at Lakehurst, Captain Max Pruss charted a course over Manhattan Island, causing a public spectacle as people rushed out into the street to catch sight of the airship. The airship was hours behind schedule when it passed over Boston on the morning of May 6, and its landing at Lakehurst was expected to be further delayed because of afternoon thunderstorms. The Hindenburg over Manhattan, New York on May 6, 1937, shortly before the disaster Many of the passengers with tickets to Germany were planning to attend the coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in London the following week. Although carrying only half its full capacity of passengers (36 of 70) and crewmen (61, including 21 crewman trainees) during the flight accident, the Hindenburg was fully booked for its return flight. Įxcept for strong headwinds that slowed its progress, the Atlantic crossing of the Hindenburg was unremarkable until the airship attempted an early-evening landing at Lakehurst three days later on May 6. American Airlines had contracted with the operators of the Hindenburg to shuttle passengers from Lakehurst to Newark for connections to airplane flights. After opening its 1937 season by completing a single round-trip passage to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in late March, the Hindenburg departed from Frankfurt, Germany, on the evening of May 3, on the first of ten round trips between Europe and the United States that were scheduled for its second year of commercial service. The Hindenburg made ten trips to the United States in 1936. The publicity shattered public confidence in the giant, passenger-carrying rigid airship and marked the abrupt end of the airship era. A variety of theories have been put forward for both the cause of ignition and the initial fuel for the ensuing fire. The disaster was the subject of newsreel coverage, photographs and Herbert Morrison's recorded radio eyewitness reports from the landing field, which were broadcast the next day. The accident caused 35 fatalities (13 passengers and 22 crewmen) from the 97 people on board (36 passengers and 61 crewmen), and an additional fatality on the ground. It caught fire and was destroyed during its attempt to dock with its mooring mast at Naval Air Station Lakehurst. ![]() It was named after Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg, who was President of Germany from 1925 until his death in 1934. It was designed and built by the Zeppelin Company ( Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH) and was operated by the German Zeppelin Airline Company ( Deutsche Zeppelin-Reederei). The LZ 129 Hindenburg ( Luftschiff Zeppelin #129 Registration: D-LZ 129) was a German commercial passenger-carrying rigid airship, the lead ship of the Hindenburg class, the longest class of flying machine and the largest airship by envelope volume. The Hindenburg disaster was an airship accident that occurred on May 6, 1937, in Manchester Township, New Jersey. NAS Lakehurst, Lakehurst Borough, New Jersey, U.S. Photograph of the Hindenburg descending in flamesĬaught fire during landing cause undetermined
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