Why Did The Hindenburg Fail

On May 6, 1937, an explosion occurred at Lakehurst, New Jersey, one that will be forever known as the Hindenburg disaster and one that would put an end to the Zeppelin era. The Hindenburg was a zeppelin, or a large German dirigible airship, long and cylindrical in shape and with a rigid framework, that exploded killing 35 of the 97 passengers (Grossman). Zeppelins were used in World War Ⅰ for bombing, military observation of the enemies and their territories, and after the war ended, as passenger transporters. Even as of 80 years later, this event still has no definite answer for the explosion. Yet, there are many theories about why the actual explosion took place. Although, while some theories suggest that sabotage caused the Hindenburg to explode, evidence shows that bad design, dangerous weather, and a hydrogen leak combined to
Captain Wittemann stated when being questioned by Director of the FBI, that Captain Max Pruss and Captain Ernst Lehmann had been warned of possible sabotage of the Hindenburg (Kelly). The captains, however, did not think much of the threat and did not tell anyone about it. The last and final set of evidence for the claim of sabotage is the footprints found near the back of the landing airfield in a restricted area. This evidence was used for the theory of the Hindenburg, that stated that it was possibly shot out of the sky. This evidence was dismissed quite easily considering the number of people watching the landing that could have made the prints. The Navy, in fact, had caught a few boys sneaking into the airfield from the direction of the prints. Although, there were also reports of farmers shooting at zeppelins as they flew over their land (Novak). This evidence also could be dismissed by Spah himself. Spah told his story to the Pittsburgh Press on May 8, 1937. Spah