A symbol of the greatness of Nazi Germany, the giant airship LZ-129, nicknamed the "Heavenly Titanic", exploded in 1937 while mooring at the US naval base in New Jersey. Onboard there were 97 passengers and crew members, of whom 36 people died. According to the latest information, a terrorist act was the cause of the explosion.
Summer 1900 - German General Ferdinand von Zeppelin presented to the public an airship he had designed - a rudder-driven and propeller-driven balloon that had a metal frame covered in fabric. The first experiment was unsuccessful - having flown 32 km in 18 minutes, Zeppelin's "hard" airship got into a storm and crashed. After 5 years, a modified version of the "airship" was born, which successfully passed all the tests. Despite the fact that soon he also crashed during landing, airship construction began to develop rapidly in Europe and the USA, and all devices of this design from that time began to be called "zeppelins".
The huge popularity of airships was ensured by the record carrying capacity and high speed of movement through the air. Zeppelins were successfully used in military affairs, and in 1909, the world's first passenger transport company, German Airships, was already established. 1917, March - by the time of the death of its founder, Ferdinand Zeppelin's firm had built more than 100 controlled balloons, two of which - Graf Zeppelin and Hindenburg - forever entered the history of world aeronautics. The first is widely known for having been able to carry more than 13,000 passengers in nearly a decade of operation, and the second became the last balloon to make regular flights with people on board.
The airship "Hindenburg", registration number LZ-129, was built by Deutsche Zeppelin-Reederei in 1936. The name of the late President of Germany was given to the airship by the personal order of Adolf Hitler. In his opinion, the largest and most expensive aircraft of those times was supposed to symbolize the rebirth of the Third Reich, represent an irrefutable proof of the superiority of the Aryan race.
The size of the new airship was not inferior to the infamous Titanic. The aluminum body of the air monster, 248 meters long and more than 40 meters in diameter, was divided into 16 compartments, which contained chambers filled with explosive hydrogen. The total gas volume was 212,000 m3. Four diesel engines with a capacity of 1,050 liters each were suspended from the bottom of the Zeppelin frame. from. and a gondola with a cockpit, passenger compartment and cargo hold. With a full supply of fuel, the Hindenburg airship could carry 50 passengers with luggage and 12 tons of other cargo over a distance of 15,000 km, at a maximum speed of 135 km / h.
On the second floor of the airship gondola (upper deck), there were 26 double cabins, a bar, a living room with a specially designed light piano and a cabaret stage, as well as a spacious ballroom and a huge library. Along the sides were walking galleries with huge sloping windows. On the lower deck there was a kitchen, an elevator and service rooms.
The flyer said: "Great attention is paid to the comfort of passengers, who have a large saloon that also serves as a restaurant, comfortable sleeping cabins that are equipped with buttons for calling the stewards, washrooms and an advanced electric kitchen." In addition, the airship was equipped with the most modern navigation instruments and equipment. Fire safety measures were strictly observed. In particular, the crew wore antistatic outerwear and hemp-soled shoes, and passengers were required to turn in matches, lighters and flashlights before boarding.
Having only managed to get off the stocks of the Friedrichshafen shipyard, the Hindenburg airship immediately set a world speed record, having made a flight across the North Atlantic in 43 hours.
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In the same 1936, he made ten flights to the American continent (at an astronomical ticket price of more than $ 800), and the next year 18 more were planned. In the book “Hindenburg - An Illustrated History” it was said: “At that moment his popularity was almost mystical. Wherever he appeared, everywhere he made a sensation. It should be noted that this was the most famous of all airships that once existed."
Late in the evening on May 3, 1937, the airship "Hindenburg" opened navigation, it took off from Frankfurt am Main and headed for the shores of the New World. On board was one of the directors of Deutsche Zeppelin-Reederei Ernst Leiman, who decided to fly as part of the crew after it became known about the impending sabotage on the airship. Leiman was informed about this in the Gestapo and a corresponding denunciation-warning was shown.
“In this situation, I have to be with my guys,” the engineer announced his decision, and no one could persuade him to refrain from flying. On the eve, the necessary security measures were taken - information was collected about all passengers, covert surveillance was established for the suspicious. The airship captain was appointed an experienced pilot, Max Pruss, who had the combat training of the First World War.
The flight across the ocean passed without incident, and after three days of an unforgettable journey, the passengers of the Hindenburg airship were over Manhattan. From the open windows of the observation room, they greeted reporters and photographers, who met them at the top of the tallest building in the world - the 102-storey Empire State Building. By the evening of May 6, 1937, the airship arrived safely at the Lakehurst naval base, New Jersey, the final destination of the flight, but because of the onset of a thunderstorm it was forced to leave towards Atlantic City. An hour and a half later, after waiting for the bad weather, Max Pruss again headed for the base, because at midnight of the same day he had to go back.
At the airport, the delayed airship was met by more than 1000 people - relatives, reporters, cameramen, airfield staff. Under the sounds of a bravura march, the zeppelin made an arc to put the nose in the wind, then the engines worked in reverse, and a silver cigar with a black swastika on a huge tail slowly approached the 60-meter quay tower.
At 19.25 from the zeppelin gondola mooring lines flew to the ground. Radio receivers all over the country broadcast a report by renowned American journalist Herbert Morrison: “The ropes have already been lowered and are being held by people in the field. The rear motors keep running and hold back the airship so that … God, it flares up! It's horrible! The flames rose 500 feet into the sky … "Before the eyes of the horrified eyewitnesses, the Hindenburg airship quickly turned into a torch - the fire was continuously fed from huge compartments that were filled with hydrogen. When it was all over a moment later, Morrison continued: “I have never seen anything more terrible. This is the worst disaster in the world! All passengers were killed! I can not believe this!"
A few seconds after the start of the fire, the airship lifted its nose and hit the ground astern. This made it possible for several passengers who stood in the gondola corridor to jump out of the windows from a 5-meter height and thus stay alive. The commander of the airship "Hindenburg" Max Pruss and the crew members, who were in the conning tower, burned to death in their workplaces. Other passengers instantly died of suffocation, because oxygen was immediately absorbed by the burning hydrogen.
In 32 seconds, while the fire continued, the flames completely destroyed the airship, leaving its twisted iron skeleton on the ground. And only the swastika turned black on the miraculously survived tail unit … The result of the disaster was terrible. Of the 36 passengers who were aboard the ship that ill-fated evening, 13 were burned, crashed or died of wounds and burns. Of the 61 crew members, 22 people died (including the director of the airship manufacturer E. Leyman died from burns). One of the technicians of the Lakehurst airfield service was also killed.
The investigation, which was immediately launched in America, lasted about a year, but did not lead to anything. FBI agents have worked out many versions: from sabotage aboard a ship to a lightning strike in the dock tower. In all seriousness, the police interrogated a local farmer, whom idle reporters made the main culprit in the explosion at the naval base. The reason for the accusation was an article in the newspaper, which said that the farmer fired a gun at the moored airship, because due to the roar of aircraft engines, chickens stopped laying in his shed …
The most probable cause of the disaster was recognized as the ignition of an oxyhydrogen gas (it was formed due to a leak of hydrogen), which arose from a discharge of static electricity accumulated as a result of a thunderstorm that had passed the day before. In the end, the case of the crash of the Hindenburg airship was closed, and the perpetrators were never found.
The German special services conducted their own investigation of the disaster, having received a personal order from Hitler. The Gestapo turned out to be more professional than their overseas colleagues. As a result of the search activities, it was found out that the "symbol of the Third Reich" was destroyed by a "hellish machine" installed by one of the crew members. The clockwork was supposed to work after the passengers and crew left the airship, but the explosion thundered earlier …
Because such a conclusion of the commission of inquiry discredited the National Socialist idea, the true cause of the ship's death was hidden from the world community. The detectives received the strictest instructions from the Reich Minister of Aviation Goering "not to open anything!" And only 35 years later, the name of the terrorist who planted a mine in the aft compartment of the airship was published in the press. It turned out to be the anti-fascist Erich Spel, who himself became a victim of a terrorist attack and died of burns the day after the disaster.
The death of the Hindenburg airship led to the end of the era of passenger airships. Despite the fact that the tragedy was not directly related to the design flaws of the Zeppelin, the belief in "heavenly cigars" was finally undermined. Immediately after the disaster, the Fuehrer gave the order to stop work on the production of zeppelin. An exception was made only for the twin of the deceased "Hindenburg", named "Graf Zeppelin II". This airship was completed and used for reconnaissance operations against England. And all of his brothers, already in 1939, were dismantled and given for melting - the military factories of Hitlerite Germany urgently needed scarce aluminum.
V. Sklyarenko
