Abstract
THE latest and largest German airship, Hindenburg, was destroyed by fire while landing at Lakehurst, New Jersey, U.S.A., on the evening of May 6. This was the terminal point of her first voyage of the year from Frankfort-on-Main. She carried 39 passengers and 61 crew, approximately half of whom were killed or afterwards died of injuries. The airship had been cruising about for an hour during a heavy storm, which was judged to be too severe for safe landing, and was just coming in at about 300 feet above the ground, dropping her nose mooring lines for the landing crew on the flying field. Reports state that a burst of flame was seen at the stern. In a few moments the whole ship was enveloped in fire. This was evidently due to the ignition of the hydrogen in the gas bags, as the report mentions the exceptional brilliance of the fire. No details are yet available upon which any useful theories as to the cause of the fire can be based, but the fact that the ship had been cruising around the field in a heavy thunderstorm lends colour to the suggestion that she was electrically charged, and raises the possibility of sparks having occurred when the landing ropes earthed her. It is known that special precautions against this were embodied in her design, and therefore this theory assumes some additional accident. Whatever was the original cause of the accident, it is certain, as was the case with the British airship R 101, that the ignition of the highly inflammable hydrogen was responsible for the completeness of the disaster.
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The German Airship Disaster. Nature 139, 832 (1937). https://doi.org/10.1038/139832b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/139832b0