May 6, 1937: thirty-two seconds at Lakehurst, and the end of the airship era
The LZ 129 Hindenburg was the largest aircraft ever built — 804 feet long, almost three times the length of a 747. It carried 36 to 72 passengers in cabins with private bathrooms, a dining room, a lounge with a piano made of aluminum to save weight, and promenade decks with windows you could open at 650 feet. The Atlantic crossing took three days. In its 1936 inaugural season, the Hindenburg flew 1,002 passengers across the Atlantic on 10 round trips with no accidents, no injuries, and a near-perfect financial result. The ship was supposed to fly with helium — non-flammable — but U.S. export restrictions on helium meant Nazi Germany filled it with hydrogen. On May 3, 1937, Hindenburg departed Frankfurt for Naval Air Station Lakehurst, New Jersey — its first transatlantic crossing of the new season. Headwinds delayed arrival; weather kept the ship circling. At 7:25 PM Eastern Time on May 6, while approaching the mooring mast, fire erupted near the ship's tail. In thirty-two seconds the entire 804-foot hull was consumed. Of 97 people aboard, 36 died — 13 passengers, 22 crew, and one Navy ground crewman. WLS Chicago radio reporter Herb Morrison was there to record what was supposed to be a routine landing. His on-the-scene broadcast — "It's burst into flames!… Oh, the humanity!" — was flown to New York and aired the next day, becoming one of the first coast-to-coast radio news broadcasts in U.S. history and one of the foundational moments of broadcast journalism. The 1921 Hangar No. 1 that Hindenburg was approaching still stands. Today an outline of chains marks where the airship fell. KNEL is still an active military airfield, but the Navy Lakehurst Historical Society offers tours.