The Hindenburg Disaster occurred on May 6, 1937
It was one of the first major air disasters and led to the decline of lighter-than-air passenger service.
MONROE, La. (KNOE) - The Hindenburg was considered a luxury lighter-than-air passenger airship - on May 3, 1937 it left Frankfurt, Germany to cross the Atlantic for New Jersey.
Three days later, on May 6, it was attempting to land at Lakehurst Naval Air Station when the unthinkable happened.
The airship was around 804 feet long and the “blimp” was filled with hydrogen. While attempting to land something ignited the gas and it burst into flames. The entire ship burned in seconds, falling around 200 feet to the ground.
13 passengers, 22 crew and one member of the ground crew died. Most survivors suffered injuries.
WLS radio announcer Herb Morrison was sent to cover the landing of the transatlantic passenger airship service. Seeing the explosion, he is quoted in the National Archives as exclaiming, “Oh, the humanity, all the passengers screaming around here!”
Later he said he thought at that moment everyone had died, but 62 people who were on board reportedly survived.
Morrison’s explanation of the scene is considered one of the first coast-to-coast radio news broadcasts in history.
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