Hindenburg diaster

8/6/2019 Hindenburg diaster

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The Crash of LZ 129 Hindenburg

Ejaz Gul

Mamoona AshfaqFaizan Mahmood



AIRSHIP

• Airships were the first aircraft to enablecontrolled, powered flight, and were widely usedbefore the 1940s.

• These airship trips were seen as a status symbol.

•

For their $400 ticket ($720 round trip), thepassengers could relax in the large, luxuriouscommon spaces and enjoy fine food.



WHAT IS AN AIRSHIP

• An airship is a type of aerostat or "lighter-

than-air aircraft" that can be steered and

propelled through the air using rudders and

propellers or other thrust mechanisms.



BASIC TYPE OF AIRSHIPS

• Non-rigid

– These are small airships without internal skeletons.

• Semi-rigid

– Semi-rigid airships are slightly larger and have some form

of internal support.

• Rigid

– Rigid airships with full internal skeletons.



LZ 129 Hindenburg

• It was a large German commercial passenger-

carrying rigid airship, the lead ship of the

Hindenburg class.

• It was 245 meters(803.8 feet) long.

• Longest class of flying machines of any kind

and the largest airship by envelope volume.



LZ 129 Hindenburg

• It was longer than 3 Boeing 747.

• It consist of 16 cells(bags) containing 200,000m3 of hydrogen gas.

•

It has useful lift of 247,100 pounds.• Powered by four 890kW diesel engines.

• Has maximum speed of 135km/h.

• It was skinned in cotton, doped in iron oxide with

cellulose acetate butyrate impregnated withaluminum powder. Both elements used in rocketfuel.



THE DISASTER

• The Hindenburg disaster took place on Thursday,

May 6, 1937, as the German passenger airship LZ

129 Hindenburg caught fire and was destroyed

during its attempt to dock with its mooring mastat the Lakehurst Naval Air Station, which is

located adjacent to the borough of Lakehurst.

• Of the 97 people on board, 35 people died. There

was one additional fatality on the ground.



DETAILS OF ACCIDNET

On May 3, 1937, the captain of the Hindenburg(on this trip, Max Pruss) ordered the zeppelinout of its shed at the airship station in

Frankfurt, Germany. This trip was the first of the1937 season for passenger service betweenEurope and the United States and it wasn't aspopular as the 1936 season. In 1936, the

Hindenburg had completed ten successful trips(1,002 passengers) and was so popular thatthey had to turn away customers.



DETAILS OF ACCIDNET

A storm was brewing over the Lakehurst Naval Air Station(New Jersey) on the afternoon of May 6, 1937. AfterCaptain Pruss had taken the Hindenburg over Manhattan,with a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty, the airship was

nearly over Lakehurst when they received a weatherreport which stated that winds were up to 25 knots. In alighter-than-air ship, winds could be dangerous; thus,both Captain Pruss and Commander Charles Rosendahl,the officer in charge of the air station, agreed that the

Hindenburg should wait for the weather to improve. TheHindenburg then headed southward, then northward, ina continuing circle while it waited for better weather.



DETAILS OF ACCIDNET

At 6 p.m. it began to really rain and soon after beganto clear. At 6:12 p.m., Commander Rosendahlinformed Captain Pruss: "Conditions now consideredsuitable for landing." The Hindenburg had traveled

perhaps a little too far and was still not at Lakehurst at7:10 p.m. when Commander Rosendahl sent anothermessage: "Conditions definitely improved recommendearliest possible landing.“

While Captain Pruss brought Hindenburg around thefield, First Officer Albert Sammt valved 15 seconds of hydrogen along the length of the ship to reduceHindenburg’s buoyancy in preparation for landing.



DETAILS OF ACCIDNET

As Pruss reducing, and then reversing, the powerfrom the engines, Sammt noticed that the ship washeavy in the tail and valved hydrogen from cells 11-16 (in the bow) for a total of 30 seconds, to reduce

the buoyancy of the bow and keep the ship in leveltrim. When this failed to level the ship, Sammtordered three drops of water ballast, totaling 1,100kg (2,420lbs), from Ring 77 in the tail, and thenvalved an additional 5 seconds of hydrogen from theforward gas cells. When even these measures couldnot keep the ship in level trim, six crewmen wereordered to go forward to add their weight to thebow.



DETAILS OF ACCIDNET

At 7:21 p.m., the Hindenburg was still about 1,000feet away from the mooring mast andapproximately 300 feet in the air. Most of the

passengers stood by the windows to watch theonlookers grow larger as the airship decreased itsaltitude and to wave at their family and friends.The five officers on board (two were just

observers) were all in the control gondola. Othercrewmen were in the tail fin to release mooringlines and to drop the rear landing wheel.



DETAILS OF ACCIDNET

At 7:25 p.m., witnesses saw a small, mushroom-shaped flame rise from the top of the tail sectionof the Hindenburg, just in front of the tail fin. Thecrewmen in the tail of the airship said they heard a

detonation which sounded like the burner on a gasstove turn on. Within seconds, the fire engulfedthe tail and spread quickly forward . The mid-section was completely in flames even before the

tail of the Hindenburg hit the ground.It took only 34 seconds for the entire airship to beconsumed by flames.



DETAILS OF ACCIDNET



DETAILS OF ACCIDNET

The passengers and crew had only seconds to react.Some jumped out of the windows, some fell. Since theHindenburg was still 300 feet (roughly equal to 30 stories)in the air when it caught fire, many of these passengers

did not survive the fall. Other passengers and crew jumped from the ship once it neared the ground.

Considering the quickness of the catastrophe, it isamazing that only 35 of the 97 men and women onboard, plus one member of the ground crew, died in the

Hindenburg disaster. This tragedy - seen by so many viaphotographs, news-reels, and radio - effectively endedcommercial passenger service in rigid, lighter-than-aircrafts.



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Hindenburg diaster