Word: hindenburg
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...buckled. Down on the ground went the stern with a peculiarly gentle crash amid clouds of dust and smoke. As the still undamaged bow tilted up at 45°, the flame rushed through the middle and geysered in a long bright plume from the nose. For an instant the Hindenburg seemed a rearing reptile darting its tongue in anger. Then it was a gigantic halfback tackled behind the knees and falling forward on its face. The huge bag settled slowly to earth with fire roaring over it 50 yd. a second. Last place it reached was the passenger section...
...murmured, "I'm all right," fell dead. One rescuer pulled out two dead dogs. Another brought two children, both with broken bones, horrible burns. Seated in a bonfire of debris, one man dazedly slapped at his burning clothes. Gobs doused him with sand, yanked him away. A Hindenburg steward named Kubis courageously ran back into his ship to save the metal money box. He bore it proudly to his officers. But all the bills within had charred to ashes. Also lost was a valuable 340-lb. cargo of which the chief known items were photo-graphs and newsreel films...
Helium for Hydrogen-Inquiries by all authorities soon passed over sabotage (incendiary bullets) as the cause of the disaster. Next discussed was static electricity, harges of which all aircraft accumulate, especially when flying in thunderstorm areas. The fact that the Hindenburg's, ground lines had been down for three minutes before the blaze began, thus presumably drawing off all static charges, opposed this theory...
...several witnesses clung to their story of the port rear engine racing and spouting sparks. These might have ignited hydrogen valved out during the descent. Airships usually valve gas in landing. The vents are on top and the gas is so light that it usually rises straight up. The Hindenburg was slightly nose down at the instant of the fire and still moving fairly fast. Conceivably a freak breeze might have combined with the slipstream to waft a whiff of gas into engine sparks...
Whatever the spark's origin, the fire probably meant the end of hydrogen in passenger airships, though the Germans have lost few ships from that cause. The Hindenburg was LZ129. Of her 128 German predecessors, ten never left the drawing board, 25 were lost by storm and accident, six by causes unknown, 21 were dismantled, 46 were wrecked by the War, eleven were surrendered to the Allies, seven were sabotaged to prevent surrender, two are left-the decommissioned Los Angeles at Lakehurst and the sturdy old Graf, which arrived the day after the tragedy in Frankfort from...