On Thursday 6th of May 1937 the Hindenburg crashed at Lakehurst Naval Air Station, New Jersey. It had just made its tenth crossing of the Atlantic ocean from Frankfurt, the crossing had taken three days. The landing was scheduled for 6:00am, but there were strong headwinds while traveling across the Atlantic so it could not get to its top speed. it was seen on the horizon at 4:00pm, but there was still strong rain, so the pilot did a circuit around the New Jersey coast. it finally arrived at the air station at 7:00pm. 

As it came in to land it became stern heavy, but recovered and it stern mooring ropes were dropped while the ship was 295 feet from the ground. At 7:25 the ship burst into fire and flames start to envelope the ship. The ship starts to sink stern first. The stern hit the ground first as flames emerged from the nose. The whole ship was in flames on the ground just 34 seconds after the first flames were seen.

 

A short, coloured clip of the Hindenburg can be seen at: www.vidicom-tv.com/tohiburg.htm

 

 

History