1 00:00:01,093 --> 00:00:08,092 Lakehurst, New Jersey, 725 in the evening, May 6, 1937. 2 00:00:08,092 --> 00:00:14,092 Delayed by storms, the airship Hindenburg was finally preparing to land. 3 00:00:15,091 --> 00:00:21,091 Passengers peered down looking for familiar faces as the ship turned for the final descent. 4 00:00:22,091 --> 00:00:26,090 Water ballast was released to bring her into trim. 5 00:00:27,090 --> 00:00:32,090 Engines were reversed from idle ahead to idle astern. 6 00:00:33,090 --> 00:00:37,089 Winchman paid out handling lines to the ground crew. 7 00:00:38,089 --> 00:00:41,089 Tragedy is seconds away. 8 00:00:42,089 --> 00:00:47,088 The mystery is, was it an accident or sabotage? 9 00:00:57,087 --> 00:01:01,087 Lakehurst, New Jersey is a place that time has passed by. 10 00:01:04,086 --> 00:01:08,086 Forty years ago, it was the city of the future. 11 00:01:09,086 --> 00:01:15,085 The nearby Naval Air Station was the East Coast terminal for dirigible transatlantic crossings. 12 00:01:16,085 --> 00:01:21,084 The mammoth hangar strained to accommodate these giants of the ship. 13 00:01:21,084 --> 00:01:25,084 Airship travel had become a reality. 14 00:01:29,084 --> 00:01:35,083 Germany was the starting point for most of these lighter than air voyages due to the engineering dominance of the company founded by Count Ferdinand von Zemmeln. 15 00:01:38,083 --> 00:01:43,082 In 1924, the company built this dirigible for the United States. 16 00:01:43,082 --> 00:01:47,082 As part of Germany's reparations for World War I. 17 00:01:48,081 --> 00:01:55,081 Named the Los Angeles, she was pangoded to Lakehurst by Hugo Ekener, the foremost authority on commercial airships and head of the Zeppelin Company. 18 00:01:57,081 --> 00:02:02,080 In 1928, Hugo Ekener built the large ship of the Zeppelin Company. 19 00:02:03,080 --> 00:02:07,079 The ship was named the Zeppelin Company. 20 00:02:08,079 --> 00:02:16,078 In 1928, Hugo Ekener built the largest, most luxurious airship to date, the Graf Zeppelin. 21 00:02:18,078 --> 00:02:24,078 Wherever she flew, the Graf Zeppelin was hailed as proof of the practicality of airship travel. 22 00:02:26,077 --> 00:02:34,077 Her popularity helped to restore the war-ravaged pride of the German people, many of whom had contributed money for her construction. 23 00:02:38,076 --> 00:02:43,076 In 1929, the Graf circumnavigated the world carrying passengers. 24 00:02:44,075 --> 00:02:48,075 Airlines with fixed-wing planes would not equal this feat for years. 25 00:02:50,075 --> 00:02:57,074 She established a regular schedule of flights from Germany to Brazil, years before transatlantic airplane service. 26 00:02:58,074 --> 00:03:01,074 Ocean liners were the only competition in the Atlantic. 27 00:03:03,073 --> 00:03:14,072 Hugo Ekener felt confident his dirgeables could cut the transatlantic crossing time to two days, but he would need a new airship, one larger and faster than the Graf Zeppelin. 28 00:03:28,071 --> 00:03:32,070 By late 1934, a new dirigible was under construction. 29 00:03:34,070 --> 00:03:40,069 She would be the largest airship ever built, the largest object ever put into the sky. 30 00:03:41,069 --> 00:03:44,069 She would be called the Hindenburg. 31 00:03:46,069 --> 00:03:55,068 147 feet high and one-sixth of a mile long, she was so massive that a special hangar had to be constructed to house her. 32 00:03:58,068 --> 00:04:05,067 The control car would be separated from the passenger accommodations, which would be contained in the underside of the hull. 33 00:04:06,067 --> 00:04:12,066 70 air travelers could be pampered by a 40-man crew as never before. 34 00:04:14,066 --> 00:04:18,065 The metal framework would surround 16 huge gas bags. 35 00:04:20,065 --> 00:04:25,065 7 million cubic feet of lighter-than-air gas would give the Hindenburg buoyancy. 36 00:04:26,065 --> 00:04:34,064 Unlike other German Zeppelins which were filled with explosive hydrogen, Hugo Ekener had designed the Hindenburg to be filled with helium. 37 00:04:35,064 --> 00:04:38,063 A gas so safe, it would actually smother fire. 38 00:04:40,063 --> 00:04:47,062 The United States was the primary source of this rare natural gas and was at first willing to sell it to the Zeppelin Company. 39 00:04:48,062 --> 00:04:56,061 A doll Hitler's rise to power complicated the negotiations. 40 00:05:02,061 --> 00:05:08,060 Hitler saw the airships as propaganda machines to carry the message of the Third Reich around the world. 41 00:05:09,060 --> 00:05:18,059 The increasing militancy of the Nazi government caused the United States to have second thoughts about selling its helium to a German company, 42 00:05:19,059 --> 00:05:22,058 fearing it would be used in dirigible fitted for war. 43 00:05:25,058 --> 00:05:27,058 A disappointed Ekener had no choice. 44 00:05:28,058 --> 00:05:33,057 If he wanted the Hindenburg to fly, she had to be inflated with flammable hydrogen. 45 00:05:34,057 --> 00:05:39,057 In early March 1936, the Hindenburg was ready. 46 00:05:40,057 --> 00:05:46,056 Accompanied by the Graf Zeppelin, the Hindenburg set out on a three-day propaganda flight. 47 00:05:50,055 --> 00:05:55,055 Ekener complained loudly and publicly about what he considered to be the misuse of his airships. 48 00:05:56,055 --> 00:06:02,054 The furious propaganda minister forbade the German press to ever mention Ekener's name again. 49 00:06:04,054 --> 00:06:09,053 Earlier, Ekener's anti-Nazi sentiments had brought him into disfavor with the Third Reich. 50 00:06:10,053 --> 00:06:13,053 He was removed as director of the Zeppelin Company. 51 00:06:14,053 --> 00:06:16,053 The airships sailed on. 52 00:06:17,053 --> 00:06:21,052 Named for the former German president, the Hindenburg was the symbol of the new Nazi era. 53 00:06:34,051 --> 00:06:39,050 The 1936 Olympics were to be a showcase for the master race. 54 00:06:47,049 --> 00:06:53,049 In the wake of Jesse Owen's four gold medals, the stunned Nazis turned to the Hindenburg to regain their lost prestige. 55 00:07:06,047 --> 00:07:11,047 In 1936, the Hindenburg was re-established. 56 00:07:16,046 --> 00:07:21,046 In 1936, the Hindenburg made ten flights from Germany to the United States. 57 00:07:22,046 --> 00:07:26,045 Almost every crossing set a new transatlantic speed record. 58 00:07:31,045 --> 00:07:39,044 In her first year, the Hindenburg logged almost 200,000 miles, carrying over 2,600 passengers. 59 00:07:40,044 --> 00:07:46,043 Jogging at Lakehurst, the Hindenburg was reunited with her smaller sister ship, the Los Angeles. 60 00:07:49,043 --> 00:07:56,042 Ekener's joy in the Hindenburg's success was dampened by the fact that she was now piloted by Captain Ernst Lehmann, 61 00:07:56,042 --> 00:07:59,042 the new head of the nationalized Zeppelin Company. 62 00:08:01,041 --> 00:08:08,041 In spite of increasing international tensions, the Zeppelin Company established an ambitious passenger schedule for 1937. 63 00:08:10,040 --> 00:08:14,040 18 flights from Germany to Lakehurst were planned for the Hindenburg. 64 00:08:16,040 --> 00:08:23,039 Almost immediately after the announcement of the schedule, the German Embassy in Washington began receiving threats against the airship. 65 00:08:25,039 --> 00:08:30,038 Warnings came by phone and mail that the Hindenburg would be destroyed at Lakehurst. 66 00:08:31,038 --> 00:08:41,037 When the Hindenburg was ready to leave on her first US flight of 1937, the ship was thoroughly searched for any kind of destructive device. 67 00:08:42,037 --> 00:08:45,037 Passengers' luggage was also carefully inspected. 68 00:08:46,037 --> 00:08:56,035 Although this flight would be commanded by Captain Max Proust, Captain Lehmann decided to go along, hoping his presence would help alleviate the rumors of sabotage. 69 00:09:01,035 --> 00:09:06,034 The Hindenburg was ready. Captain Proust gave the launch command, up ship. 70 00:09:10,034 --> 00:09:15,033 The Hindenburg lifted off from Frankfurt in the evening of May 3rd, 1937. 71 00:09:16,033 --> 00:09:23,033 The 97 people on board expected the flight to be as routine as several years of passenger service had proven it could be. 72 00:09:24,032 --> 00:09:34,031 The route across Europe was determined by international politics. The Hindenburg flew across Holland to the English Channel. 73 00:09:36,031 --> 00:09:39,031 By May 4th, the Hindenburg was over the North Atlantic. 74 00:09:40,031 --> 00:09:46,030 Violent storms and strong headwinds reduced her speed to only 60 miles per hour. 75 00:09:47,030 --> 00:09:54,029 Unaffected by the turbulence outside, passengers settled down to a meal of rind salmon ala Hindenburg. 76 00:09:56,029 --> 00:10:01,028 The great airship flew on smoothly through the storms and lightning that would delay her arrival. 77 00:10:06,028 --> 00:10:14,027 In the afternoon of May 5th, the cloud cover broke long enough for passengers to catch a glimpse of North America, the southern tip of Newfoundland. 78 00:10:16,027 --> 00:10:22,026 Throughout the night, the Hindenburg sailed down the Canadian coast, headed for the United States. 79 00:10:24,026 --> 00:10:30,025 The morning of May 6th found the Hindenburg over a foggy Boston, 10 hours behind schedule. 80 00:10:31,025 --> 00:10:39,024 As she flew further south, the clouds cleared. The Hindenburg came to New York City in bright sunshine. 81 00:10:40,024 --> 00:10:51,023 As the Hindenburg left New York, Lakehurst radioed that a weather front was moving into the New Jersey area. 82 00:10:55,023 --> 00:11:03,022 The Hindenburg reached Lakehurst at 4 in the afternoon, but gusty winds and rain made an immediate landing impossible. 83 00:11:04,022 --> 00:11:10,021 She turned east, back out to sea, to ride out the storm over the New Jersey coast. 84 00:11:11,021 --> 00:11:15,021 She would have to wait three more hours before reaching her final resting place. 85 00:11:20,020 --> 00:11:23,020 5 p.m. May 6th, 1937. 86 00:11:24,020 --> 00:11:30,019 The airship Hindenburg cruised off the New Jersey coast, waiting for the weather to clear at Lakehurst. 87 00:11:33,019 --> 00:11:42,018 At 6.23 p.m., Lakehurst radioed, recommend landing now. Captain Proust acknowledged and set course for Lakehurst. 88 00:11:46,017 --> 00:11:52,017 Radio commentator Herb Morrison recorded her arrival for the first transcontinental broadcast. 89 00:11:53,016 --> 00:11:55,016 Well, here it comes, ladies and gentlemen, and what a great sight it is. 90 00:11:55,016 --> 00:12:00,016 A thrilling one. The ship is riding majestically toward us like some great feather. 91 00:12:01,016 --> 00:12:06,015 Newsreel cameras word as water ballast was released to bring the ship into trim. 92 00:12:06,015 --> 00:12:10,015 The ship was no doubt busting with activities we can see. Orders were shot as a crew. 93 00:12:10,015 --> 00:12:15,014 The passenger problem was lining. The wind was looking down the field ahead of them, getting their glimpse of the mooring mass. 94 00:12:15,014 --> 00:12:20,014 It's practically standing still now. They've dropped ropes out of the nose of the ship. 95 00:12:20,014 --> 00:12:23,013 It's been taken a hold of down on the field by a number of men. 96 00:12:23,013 --> 00:12:28,013 At starting to rain again, the rain had slacked up a little bit. 97 00:12:29,013 --> 00:12:33,012 They back motors of the ship are just holding it just enough to keep it from... 98 00:12:33,012 --> 00:12:36,012 It's rusting, it's rusting, it's getting started, it's getting started. 99 00:12:36,012 --> 00:12:41,011 It's rising terrible. Whoa, I get out of the way, please. 100 00:12:41,011 --> 00:12:44,011 It's running, rusting, it's falling on the mooring mass. 101 00:12:44,011 --> 00:12:49,010 Now the folks between the beds are terrible. This is one of the worst disaster in the world. 102 00:12:49,010 --> 00:12:54,010 It's still... it's rusting, it's falling 400, 500 feet into the sky. 103 00:12:54,010 --> 00:12:56,010 And it's a terrific great lady. 104 00:12:56,010 --> 00:13:01,009 The children have spoken in slave style and they claim it's rising to the ground. 105 00:13:01,009 --> 00:13:03,009 Not quite to the mooring mass. 106 00:13:03,009 --> 00:13:07,008 Oh, the humanity. All the passengers, me be gone. 107 00:13:07,008 --> 00:13:11,008 I told them I can't talk to people. 108 00:13:11,008 --> 00:13:13,008 The friends are out there. 109 00:13:13,008 --> 00:13:18,007 I can't talk, ladies and gentlemen. 110 00:13:18,007 --> 00:13:22,007 Honest, it's just late now, the mass is smoking wreckage. 111 00:13:22,007 --> 00:13:25,007 And everybody is getting out of the way. 112 00:13:25,007 --> 00:13:28,006 It's a great lady. I'm sorry. 113 00:13:28,006 --> 00:13:31,006 Honestly, I can hardly breathe. 114 00:13:31,006 --> 00:13:34,006 I'm going to step inside while I cannot see it. 115 00:13:34,006 --> 00:13:37,005 It's starting, it's terrible. 116 00:13:37,005 --> 00:13:39,005 I can. 117 00:13:39,005 --> 00:13:42,005 Let's hope I'm going to have to stop for a minute 118 00:13:42,005 --> 00:13:46,004 because I've lost the voices. It's the worst thing I've ever witnessed. 119 00:13:53,004 --> 00:14:00,003 Even today, the disaster is vivid in the memories of those who witnessed the crash. 120 00:14:00,003 --> 00:14:05,002 A member of the ground crew was directly beneath the Hindenburg when she exploded. 121 00:14:05,002 --> 00:14:07,002 Lawrence Thomas. 122 00:14:07,002 --> 00:14:11,002 My job was to have what they call a spider line. 123 00:14:11,002 --> 00:14:13,001 I would hook the spider line onto the ship 124 00:14:13,001 --> 00:14:20,001 and there would be eight men would spread out with the different ropes and pull just as hard as they could. 125 00:14:20,001 --> 00:14:26,000 So just as I was reaching for the rope to put my spider line on, 126 00:14:26,000 --> 00:14:30,000 she went boom and it blew it right out of my hand. 127 00:14:30,000 --> 00:14:34,999 And matter of fact, if I remember correctly, I think most of us went off our feet. 128 00:14:34,999 --> 00:14:39,998 Stanley True worked at the Lakehurst base as an ambulance driver. 129 00:14:39,998 --> 00:14:45,998 They asked us to take the two commanding officers, which was Captain Proust and Captain Lehman. 130 00:14:45,998 --> 00:14:48,998 We proceeded to put them in our ambulances. 131 00:14:48,998 --> 00:14:54,997 Captain Proust, who was I was attending in the ambulance, was burnt from head to foot, 132 00:14:54,997 --> 00:14:59,996 but he was in perfect spirits. Captain Lehman seemed to me like he was gone. 133 00:15:01,996 --> 00:15:06,996 Miraculously, 62 people on board the Hindenburg escaped from the flames. 134 00:15:06,996 --> 00:15:09,995 The death toll was 36. 135 00:15:09,995 --> 00:15:14,995 13 passengers, 22 crew members and one groundsman. 136 00:15:15,995 --> 00:15:20,994 Captain Proust did recover, but Captain Lehman died from his burns. 137 00:15:20,994 --> 00:15:24,994 The Hindenburg herself was the last of her kind. 138 00:15:29,993 --> 00:15:36,992 The 13 passengers killed in the Hindenburg crash were the only passenger fatalities in the Zeppelin Company's 30-year history. 139 00:15:36,992 --> 00:15:40,992 The reason for the fire that consumed the Great Airship was obvious. 140 00:15:40,992 --> 00:15:45,991 The 7 million cubic feet of volatile hydrogen gas contained in the hull. 141 00:15:45,991 --> 00:15:49,991 The reason why the fire started has been a source of controversy to this day. 142 00:15:49,991 --> 00:15:52,991 Was it accident or sabotage? 143 00:15:53,991 --> 00:15:57,990 One man has spent a lifetime sifting the evidence. 144 00:15:57,990 --> 00:16:03,989 World authority on airships and author of numerous books on the subject, Dr. Douglas Robinson. 145 00:16:03,989 --> 00:16:06,989 I've never been satisfied that the ship was sabotaged. 146 00:16:06,989 --> 00:16:10,989 I don't think there's an adequate proof of a plot to do so. 147 00:16:10,989 --> 00:16:15,988 I believe that there was an accidental ignition of leaking hydrogen. 148 00:16:15,988 --> 00:16:24,987 There is no doubt at all that the ship landed in a condition where there is a very high electrical potential difference right after a thunderstorm. 149 00:16:24,987 --> 00:16:31,986 After she dropped her landing rope, she was discharging the static electricity into the atmosphere. 150 00:16:31,986 --> 00:16:37,986 The other question, of course, is there is obviously free hydrogen that was ignited by the brush discharge. 151 00:16:37,986 --> 00:16:39,986 How was there free hydrogen present? 152 00:16:39,986 --> 00:16:44,985 And there's quite a number of arguments about that and there's certainly no agreement. 153 00:16:44,985 --> 00:16:50,984 How could hydrogen have escaped from the gas-tight bags? How could it have ignited? 154 00:16:50,984 --> 00:16:58,984 Theories were debated immediately after the disaster at a board of inquiry convened by the U.S. Department of Commerce. 155 00:16:58,984 --> 00:17:03,983 Germany sent an official commission headed by Hugo Ekener. 156 00:17:03,983 --> 00:17:09,982 Airship officials from both countries looked to Ekener to provide the answers. 157 00:17:09,982 --> 00:17:16,982 Ekener speculated that a bracing wire inside the hull had broken during landing maneuvers in the gusty winds. 158 00:17:16,982 --> 00:17:21,981 The broken wire slashed open a gas cell, allowing hydrogen to escape. 159 00:17:22,981 --> 00:17:29,980 It was then ignited by static electricity, sometimes called St. Elmo's Fire. 160 00:17:29,980 --> 00:17:37,979 Ekener's theory was accepted as the official conclusion by both American and German investigators. 161 00:17:37,979 --> 00:17:42,979 Everybody involved in the accident investigation assumed that there had been St. Elmo's Fire, 162 00:17:42,979 --> 00:17:46,978 but nobody had actually seen it among the witnesses who appeared. 163 00:17:46,978 --> 00:17:51,978 I think this was because they were all standing underneath the ship and couldn't see what was going on on top. 164 00:17:51,978 --> 00:17:56,977 Quite a few years ago I interviewed a couple who were standing outside the main gate of the air station 165 00:17:56,977 --> 00:18:00,977 and had quite a different view of the disaster. They were about a quarter mile away. 166 00:18:00,977 --> 00:18:07,976 They saw it silhouetted against the evening sky and both of them observed a dim blue flame flickering along the full length of the top of the ship 167 00:18:07,976 --> 00:18:14,975 and even had time to exchange some remarks about it before there was a sudden yellow flaming burst of burning hydrogen 168 00:18:14,975 --> 00:18:20,975 just ahead of the upper fin. So I see a field, no doubt whatever, there was St. Elmo's Fire 169 00:18:20,975 --> 00:18:23,974 and it did set fire to escaping hydrogen. 170 00:18:23,974 --> 00:18:27,974 Many present at the board of inquiry however disagreed. 171 00:18:27,974 --> 00:18:33,973 They argued that the ship had been subjected to much greater stress without wires breaking 172 00:18:33,973 --> 00:18:38,973 and that St. Elmo's Fire was not powerful enough to ignite hydrogen gas. 173 00:18:38,973 --> 00:18:44,972 They believed the Hindenburg had been destroyed by another cause, sabotage. 174 00:18:44,972 --> 00:18:50,971 I spent a morning with Captain Cruz, the captain of the Hindenburg at the time of the fire in 1957. 175 00:18:50,971 --> 00:18:54,971 He by then had convinced himself that the ship was sabotaged 176 00:18:54,971 --> 00:19:01,970 and insisted that a particular passenger had used various excuses of being the tail of the ship to plant a bomb. 177 00:19:02,970 --> 00:19:11,969 The sabotage threats received by the German Embassy before the Hindenburg took off were brought up in the testimony at the inquiry in 1937 178 00:19:11,969 --> 00:19:13,969 but they were not pursued. 179 00:19:16,969 --> 00:19:27,968 Because official investigations were clouded by diplomatic considerations, it may never be known whether the Hindenburg was destroyed by accident or by sabotage. 180 00:19:28,967 --> 00:19:36,967 Either way, it is likely that there would have been no fire if the ship had been filled with helium instead of hydrogen. 181 00:19:36,967 --> 00:19:46,965 Had it not been for the strained international politics of the 1930s, the tragedy of the great airship Hindenburg might never have occurred. 182 00:19:51,965 --> 00:19:56,964 The Hindenburg crash sounded the death knell for giant passenger airships. 183 00:19:58,964 --> 00:20:06,963 Today, however, there is no longer the risk of fire that threatened the hydrogen-filled dirageables. Helium is easily available. 184 00:20:07,963 --> 00:20:11,963 Perhaps commercial lighter-than-air service has a future after all. 185 00:20:12,963 --> 00:20:15,962 Goodyear Public Relations spokesman Ron Bell. 186 00:20:16,962 --> 00:20:25,961 With the fuel efficiency of the airship and the energy considerations of today and our modern technology and 50 years of experience in airship manufacturing 187 00:20:25,961 --> 00:20:29,961 we are going to be able to build a far superior airship to what they had in the days of the Hindenburg. 188 00:20:30,961 --> 00:20:39,960 We have two airships currently that we have designed. One of them is the heavy lifters, 450 feet long and capable of carrying 75 tons of cargo. 189 00:20:39,960 --> 00:20:49,959 The other airship is the coastal patrol airship and it's 320 feet long and able to patrol international as well as domestic borders. 190 00:20:49,959 --> 00:20:56,958 They have a very real feasibility. They're far more economical than aircraft and faster than ships for cargo transportation. 191 00:20:57,958 --> 00:21:03,957 In Europe and America, a number of companies are designing and testing a new generation of lighter-than-air craft. 192 00:21:04,957 --> 00:21:09,957 Perhaps the airship business is about to take up with a Hindenburg left off. 193 00:21:09,957 --> 00:21:21,955 Coming up next, 20th century with Mike Wallace puts perspective on the 1970 killing of four Kent State students by the National Guard. 194 00:21:22,955 --> 00:21:30,954 Then from the Western Front through Patton's Race to Berlin to Desert Storm, it's the story of hell on wheels, tank divisions on weapons at war.