Weather That Changed the World

Crash of the Hindenburg (1x1)

: 09, 2013

We explore the role the weather played in the Hindenburg disaster on May 6th 1937. Airship historian Dan Grossman visits the Hindenburg’s original hanger in Lakehurst, New Jersey and reveals how fast and luxurious airships were as a method of transport in the 1930’s. Meteorologist Eric Fisher illustrates the impact wind played in the lead up to the disaster with a remote control blimp and takes to the skies in a hot air balloon to reveal how electricity in the atmosphere could have led to a static discharge within the airship, causing it to catch alight. We hear the horror of the disaster and the burning victims through first-hand accounts with the cabin boy, Werner Franz, who survived the catastrophe by jumping out a window and ground crewman, Bob Buchanan, who narrowly missed being crushed by the falling ship. In the final act a team of engineers in the UK develop an experiment to recreate the conditions on the Hindenburg and the huge fire ball that followed.