But there was a time when the original Zeppelins, flying

dirigible airships named after the German count who invented

them, ruled the skies for both warfare and passenger flights

in the early 20th century.

These flying bags of hydrogen were an engineering

marvel and popular mode of air travel

until the Hindenburg came crashing

down just before World War II.

Today, we're exploring strange, fascinating facts

about the Hindenburg disaster.

But before we get started, be sure to subscribe to the Weird

History channel and let us know in the comments below what

other historical disasters you would like to hear about.

OK, let's go see what was behind Oh, the humanity.

[SUSPENSFUL MUSIC]

The story of the LZ-129 Hindenburg

is fairly well known as part of modern history.

Once the world's largest airship,

the massive flying machine was one

of Germany's rigid dirigible airships colloquially known

as a Zeppelin.

Although they were popular war machines during World War I,

the Hindenburg was actually a passenger airship

making its way to Manchester Township, New Jersey,

on that fateful night in 1937.

Containing 16 large bags full of flammable hydrogen

gas in its envelope, the ship was basically

a flying explosion waiting to happen.

As the Hindenburg made its final approach, tragedy struck.

The Zeppelin caught fire, then slammed into a tower,

bursting into flames, and crashed onto the landing field

below.

The crash of the Hindenburg led to the deaths

of 35 of the 97 passengers, including

the fatality of at least one of the ground crew.

And it all began with a thunderstorm.

The Hindenburg's commander, Captain Max Pruss,

decided to delay landing due to the storm.

And when it began to pass, the ship

dropped its landing ropes about 180 feet from the ground

just before the incident that ignited the fire.

Most witnesses saw the first flames at 7:25 PM,

and the fire quickly spread over the next minute consuming

the airship.

Some reports say that once the airship caught fire,

it took 32 seconds from the initial signs of distress

to the subsequent crash landing.

But what went wrong?

Whether it was a stray lightning bolt, static electricity,

or even a bit of good old fashioned anti-Nazi sabotage,

the fate of the Hindenburg captured public imagination

largely thanks to the eyewitness testimony

of a reporter who was present at the time

and disturbing footage of the disaster.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

The hydrogen on the Hindenburg was a fast-burning gas

that held the ship aloft as it flew through the sky.

It was relatively safe, but as soon

as the airship's skin caught fire,

it quickly ignited the gas.

Out of the 97 people aboard the airship as it was engulfed

in flames, only 13 passengers, 22 crewmen, and a single worker

on the ground actually died during the disaster.

Per several accounts of the mayhem, some passengers

were forced to leap from the airship in an attempt

to save themselves.

Because the ship was close to landing,

they were near the ground, so some of the jumpers

did survive the ordeal.

Other jumpers met an untimely end when they either did not

survive the jump, or the burning airship landed on top of them.

Surprisingly, many of the casualties

were not burn victims, as only two unlucky people succumbed

from burns.

These two passengers were very likely close

to the fire's origin, one survivor, Werner Doehner,

told People Magazine, a few years before he passed,

a harrowing account of the ordeal.

As his family sat in the port side dining room

to watch the landing, the airship

approached the mooring mast and dropped its landing ropes.

His father disappeared to another deck

for a replacement roll of camera film when the fire struck.

Doehner told the AP, "Suddenly, the air was on fire.

My mother took my brother and threw him out.

She grabbed me and fell back and then threw me out.

She tried to get my sister, but she was too heavy,

and my mother decided to get out by the time the Zeppelin was

nearly on the ground."

He lost his father and sister in the disaster,

but his mother survived with a broken hip.

Doehner was burned on his face, both hands, and down

his right leg below the knee.

The nurse gave him a needle to pop

has blisters once the family made it to the infirmary.

Speaking in 2017, Doehner reflected on the disaster.

"The internet and social media has exposed and attracted

the interest of a younger generation," he said,

"The Hindenburg is something you don't forget."

The last survivor of the Hindenburg disaster

passed two years later.

[MOURNFUL MUSIC]

Doehner was right when he said no one will

forget the Hindenburg.

But no matter how horrible the Hindenburg disaster was,

it was not the most deadly airship crash at the time.

That dubious honor goes to the USS Navy airship USS Akron.

The Akron stumbled into a violent, turbulent storm

in 1933 and crashed somewhere off the coast of New Jersey.

Sounds like New Jersey was a dangerous place

for aircraft in the '30s.

In the aftermath of the Akron disaster,

only three passengers survived.

73 of the crew perished, only secondary to the 48 lives

lost in the 1930 crash of the British military airship R101.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

While Chicago radio station reporter Herbert Morrison

is famous for his emotional first-person

account of the Hindenburg disaster,

Chicago residents didn't hear his recording until

later that night.

Americans nationwide didn't learn of the disaster

until the following day.

Morrison's amazing reporting caught the public's ear,

and his audio report became a media

fixture accompanying newsreels and footage of the disaster.

His comment, Oh, the humanity, became a recognizable phrase

around the world, enduring to this day.

But that's only a small part of Morrison's original broadcast,

which told a more complete story.

"It's burst into flames... oh my, this is terrible...

It is burning, burst into flames and is falling on the mooring

mast and all the folks we...

This is one of the worst catastrophes in the world!

Oh, the humanity and all the passengers!"

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Taking a trip across the Atlantic on the Hindenburg

was a costly affair.

The total cost of a one-way ticket

between Europe and America in 1936

was a regal $400, which, adjusted for inflation,

comes to around $7,000.

The price increased to 450 in 1937.

A ride in this airship was certainly

aimed at the upper class, but that didn't stop it

from making other appearances like at a certain athletic

tournament in Berlin.

And what the Nazis considered a triumph

of their own propaganda, the Hindenburg

made a cameo at the 1936 German Olympics.

Olympic stadium spectators, along with approximately 3

million German citizens, watched the airship travel

750 feet above the ground during the summer Olympics,

performing a show for about an hour or so.

As to what kind of a show a Zeppelin performs,

it basically just flies back and forth.

Hey, it's something to watch.

During its first public flight in 1936,

the airship distributed leaflets and swastika flags

over the cities of Germany.

Flying in formation alongside other airships

at the time, the ship supported a referendum

calling for the reoccupation of Rhineland made up

of a loosely defined area in Western Germany along the Rhine

River.

As if the weather weren't already bad that day

due to the deluge of leaflets, the airship

also played patriotic music and some other propaganda

over its loudspeakers as it flew.

In fact, Germany's minister of propaganda, Joseph Goebbels,

wanted to name the dirigible after Hitler.

Luckily Dr. Hugo Eckener, who was the head of the Zeppelin

company at the time, was staunchly anti-that

and instead named the airship for late German president Paul

von Hindenburg.

Man, what a difference a name makes.

On its maiden voyage that same year,

a few other notable things happened.

The airship crossed the Atlantic in only 2 and 1/2 days.

Pretty good speed at the time, as most ocean liners

made the same journey in five.

And it held the first Catholic mass ever

to be done while traveling through the air.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Unlike your modern coach class flight

where even thinking about lighting a cigarette

we'll get you in trouble, smoking

was allowed on board the airship.

They even had a special room for it.

It was pressurized to prevent any of the flammable hydrogen

gas from infiltrating the room.

It was a bit of a ceremony, too, since a steward

escorted smokers into the room and monitored

them to ensure safety.

Leaving the smoking lounge with any kind

of lit pipe or cigarette was strictly prohibited.

When you're riding on a ship containing

seven million cubic feet of hydrogen gas,

a smoking lounge probably isn't the best idea.

But the airships designers put one in anyway.

Of course, passengers weren't allowed

to bring their own matches or lighters,

but they could buy what they needed,

including cigarettes and Cuban cigars,

once they were on board.

Safety first.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Zeppelins were the original airmail carriers.

Capable of traveling above the ocean at a constant height

and distance, the airships were perfectly suited to the task.

And the last voyage of the Hindenburg was no exception.

The airship carried an estimated 17,000 pieces

of mail, most of which met a fiery end in the disaster.

176 pieces of mail survived the destruction

due to being stored in a protective container.

Despite charring in the blaze, the mail could still be read.

It was postmarked four days after the airship

was destroyed and is surprisingly desirable

among modern collectors.

One surviving letter sold that was previously

unknown to collectors went on sale via Cowan's auction

on November 19, 2020, for an asking price of $7,000.

[PIANO MUSIC]

Riding on the Hindenburg was a fancy way to travel in style.

The airship's owners wanted to feature live music

during flights but had to adhere to weight restrictions

and couldn't put live musical shows inside the Zeppelin.

Turning to famous piano-making firm Julius Bluthner,

they commissioned a special lightweight baby grand piano

for use onboard.

Made almost entirely of aluminum,

the 400 pound piano was covered in yellow pigskin.

It was only used for the airship's inaugural flying

season and wasn't on board during the disaster.

At its weight, the piano was light enough

to have no effect on the flight of the airship.

On its first flight to America in 1936,

a prominent pianist named Franz Wagner gave several concerts

for the passengers, playing works by Chopin, Liszt

Beethoven, Brahms, and the popular music of the time.

For whatever reason, the piano did not

appear on many Hindenburg flights.

It was removed in 1937, put on display in a factory,

and unceremoniously destroyed in a 1943 air raid

when a bomb blew up the factory in which it

was being displayed.

[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]

In 1937, both German and American accident investigators

determined the Hindenburg fire started