Fire in the sky: The Hindenburg disaster at 80

LAKEHURST, N.J. – Preparations are under way to mark the upcoming 80th anniversary of the Hindenburg disaster, which is expected to bring dignitaries, historians and media from around the globe to Ocean County, N.J.

They will commemorate a human tragedy that has long captivated the public’s imagination.

Representatives of the Navy Lakehurst Historical Society, which organizes the memorial ceremony each year to honor the 36 lives lost in the crash of the German airship on May 6, 1937, have been trying to keep up with the interview and speaking engagement requests arriving into its office, museum and gift shop inside historic Hangar One at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst.

“The Discovery Channel, the History Channel; we’ve had calls from media here, and from in Germany and France,” said Carl S. Jablonski, 75, of Beachwood, the longtime president of the society.

Ocean County Freeholder John C. Bartlett Jr. recently said there is no doubt that the Hindenburg disaster was the single biggest historical event in the county's 167-year history, making the Lakehurst naval base and its flight operations there known throughout the world. In 1987, for the 50th anniversary, the Board of Freeholders built a permanent memorial at the crash site that shows the outline of where the Hindenburg's control car fell in the inferno.

"The military had been there since World War I, when it was the Army's Camp Kendrick," Bartlett said. "The Navy acquired it as a base for its airship program and it eventually served as the nation's first international airport when the German Zeppelin company began passenger service to the United States."

To commemorate the 80th anniversary, a dinner and exhibit of Hindenburg artifacts are planned for the night of May 5 at the Clarion Hotel and Conference Center in Toms River for invited guests and dignitaries, with a select number of tickets available to the general public for $50 per plate.

The next day, the annual remembrance ceremony is scheduled to take place at the crash site memorial on the Joint Base. Since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the base has rarely allowed unfettered access to the general public. Participation in the past has almost always been limited to invitation only. However, because of the milestone anniversary, the society has asked the Joint Base command to consider making an exception as it did for the 75th anniversary in 2012, Jablonski said.

“We’re working on that,” he said with a grin.

Eight decades after Hindenburg fell to earth, there remains only one known living survivor of the crash.

Werner Doehner was 8-years-old when he was traveling aboard the Hindenburg with his parents, Hermann, 50, and Matilde, 41; an elder sister, Irene, 14, and elder brother, Walter, 10. The family lived in North America where Hermann Doehner was a pharmaceutical executive for a German company in Mexico City.

In the moments after the Hindenburg’s 7 million cubic feet of hydrogen erupted into a firestorm, Walter and Werner leapt from the observation windows onto the ground below, with the help of their mother and a ground crew member. Matilde followed. But when it was a reluctant Irene’s turn to jump, either in panic or shock, she fled into the interior of the burning ship to ostensibly go look for her father, who may have been in the family’s private compartment when the disaster struck.

Mother and sons survived, but Irene died that night from devastating burns while being treated at an area hospital. Hermann Doehner’s body was later recovered in the wreckage.

Now living in Colorado, Werner Doehner rarely gives interviews to reporters.

The historical society has been in contact with Doehner, who will be 88 at the time of the anniversary. The organization offered to pay for all of Doehner’s travel and accommodations if he was inclined to accept their invitation to come to Lakehurst for the anniversary. However, to date, the society has only received a polite, non-committal reply acknowledging the gesture, Jablonski explained.

The Hindenburg was on its first of 17 planned flights here of the 1937 season when it burst into flames and crashed while attempting to dock at what was then called Naval Air Station Lakehurst. The year before, the airship had made 10 such flights without incident.

On what would be its last voyage, the Hindenburg departed Frankfurt am Main, Germany, on the evening of May 3. Flight time to Lakehurst was just under three days with an arrival time scheduled for 7 a.m. May 6, Jablonski said.

Bad weather marked the arrival day, complete with thunder, lightning and intense wind gusts.

Unable to land, the Hindenburg spent much of May 6 circumnavigating the skies above New Jersey.

“That’s why a lot of people said, ‘ooh, I saw it flying over the day it was going to land and then crashed,’” Jablonski said.

Finally, at around 7 p.m., the Hindenburg was informed by radio that it had an hour window before another storm front was expected to move in over the Pine Barrens.

The captain and crew were anxious to land, see its passengers disembark, refuel, restock its provisions, clean up the ship and welcome their next complement of passengers for the return trip home. The decision was made to take the opportunity to set down.

Jablonski said the investigation found evidence that a bracing wire broke loose during one of the Zeppelin's sharp turns while in its 12-hour holding pattern, which resulted in a puncture in one of its 16 hydrogen gas cells. This caused a small hydrogen leak that began to build up, forming a pocket of gas within the airship that failed to dissipate. Ultimately, when wet mooring ropes were lowered on final approach, a static electrical discharge occurred, igniting the pocket of hydrogen.

"A small flame became a big flame," he said. "It went through the 16 cells, 7 million cubic feet and after 34 seconds, the airship was on the ground."

Contrary to public perception, there was no explosion. The Hindenburg, at nearly 804 feet in length, disintegrated over the landing field as all of its hydrogen ignited into a conflagration and swallowed the ship. Nevertheless, of the 97 people aboard Hindenburg, 62 survived. One ground crew member, who was positioned underneath Hindenburg as it began docking procedures, died when part of the structure collapsed on him.

Given its mammoth size and technological impressiveness, the arrival of Hindenburg was always covered as national news and therefore it became the first disaster captured on motion picture film.   

“No one ever saw the Titanic sink, but everyone has seen the Hindenburg crash,” Jablonski said. “Within two weeks, it was in every movie theater as a newsreel.”

For more information about this year's 80th anniversary commemoration this May, visit the Navy Lakehurst Historical Society's website at www.nlhs.com.