Universal Newsreels: [Hindenburg] Zeppelin Explodes - Scores Dead (1937)

(Pre-Released: Air Expressed to All Accounts):

LAKEHURST, N. J.--Thirty-five persons die and scores of others are injured as the mighty dirigible explodes three hundred feet over the landing field at the end of her first voyage of the season from Europe. A terrific burst of flame engulfs the stern of the ship and spreads with the rapidity of lightning to the bow. The inferno of blazing hydrogen gas cremates all living beings in its path, as the twisted skeleton of the balloon settles quickly to the ground. Rescue crews brave death to save sixty-three persons, some of them horribly burned.

SURVIVORS BATTLE INJURIES TO LIVE
LAKEHURST, N. J.--Mutilated passengers and members of the ill-fated Hindenburg's crew are placed in speedy ambulances for transport to hospitals all over the region. Many survivors are in critical condition, and doctors rush every known remedy in efforts to bring relief for their suffering. Several persons make miraculous escapes from the blazing ship. The dirigible lies upon the field, a twisted, useless mass of smoke-blackened girders, as the United States Department of Commerce launches an inquiry to determine the cause of the disaster.

VO: The German Zeppelin Hindenburg, queen of the skies, seen here from a Universal Newsreel camera plane as it sped over New York to its tragic end at Lakehurst, New Jersey , now lies at the Naval Air Station a twisted mass of metal. Shortly after these pictures were taken, showing the great skyliner saluting the millions watching it from below on its first trip of the season, the huge craft exploded while docking and blazed to a fiery end, taking the lives of almost half its 99 passengers and crew. Hours late on its trip from Hamburg because of head winds, the Zeppelin had to ride out of thunderstorm along New Jersey coast before heading for the air station and nosing its way to the mooring mast. The wind is bad and the docking is a ticklish one, but it's all a thrill for the crowd of happy passengers eager to land after their transoceanic trip. Slowly, the big ship warps in and the ground crews rush for the mooring line. In another 10 minutes or so, the great aircraft would have been snuggly docked. But as the passengers crowded the windows to watch, a roar and a burst of flame near the big tail fins turn the ship into a flaming inferno.

Passengers and crew, the fortune is among them, fell or jumped and were dragged to safety before the fiery furnace took their lives. Heroic work by navy and army men risking their lives around the white-hot skeleton snatched more than one dazed and half burned passengers from the blazing wreckage. But for the most of those trapped in the incandescent tangle, there was no hope. It's the greatest of miracles that anyone came out of the disaster alive.

Seven million cubic feet of inflammable hydrogen gas blazed up in less than a minute. The hundreds of tons of fuel oil burns for an hour or more, with its dense, black smoke making a pall over the tragic scene.

In all the history of air disasters, this is the worst, the most terrible. Hailed as the luxury liner of the air, the Hindenburg's horrible end has shocked the entire world. The pride of the skies reaches its journey's end.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• dead
• zeppelin
• universal
• disaster
• 1937
• hindenburg
• scores
• explodes
• universal newsreels

[vincevega0]

RIP John Bonham.