We Interrupt This Broadcast: May 6 1937 by ric gustafson
The Hindenburg was a floating palace of zeppelin design. It was as large and grand as the Titanic. It had room for fifty passengers and a crew of thirty. It boasted a fine dining room and an elegant lounge. It boasted of reaching the US in two days and cost $400. At a cost of five million, the Hindenburg was the largest airship of it's time. It measured 804 feet in length and it's framework measured ten stories. Powering the ship were four 1200 horse-powered Mercedes Benz engines. It boasted that it had enough fuel to travel eleven thousand miles. It had a top speed of eighty four miles per hour.
The problem for the operators of the ship Deutsche Zeppelin Reederei Company was being able to pay the United States for helium to fly the huge ship. The United States asked for $600,000 and Germany said no. Instead it filled the huge ship with seven million feet of highly volatile hydrogen gas.
On May 6 1937, a storm delayed it's arrival at Lakehurst New Jersey by ten hours. At 7:00 pm, the huge ship lowered it's landing lines and the ship was guided down. Herb Morrison, a reporter from a Chicago radio station witnessed what happened next. Suddenly, smoke and flames burst from the rear section of the airship. The flames spread across the ship's shell and reached it's hydrogen supply. As the great airship crumpled to the ground, passengers aboard the ship leapt to their deaths. In just 34 seconds, 35 passengers and crew members died. Morrison described it as one of the worst catastrophes in the world. Opinions on what caused the disaster varies but one is that a spark from static electricity ignited hydrogen that was seeping from a ruptured gas bag.
The disaster marked the end of passenger zeppelins.
research help: ' We Interrupt This Broadcast' by Joe Garner
Peace and God's blessings. Love Ric
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