What German airship caught fire while landing in New Jersey in 1937?

The German airship that caught fire while landing in New Jersey in 1937 was the Hindenburg.

The LZ 129 Hindenburg was a rigid commercial passenger airship operated by the German Zeppelin company. On May 6, 1937, it approached Naval Air Station Lakehurst in Manchester Township, New Jersey, after a transatlantic flight from Frankfurt. While attempting to dock with its mooring mast, the hydrogen-filled craft caught fire and was destroyed in roughly half a minute.

There were 97 people aboard: 36 passengers and 61 crew members. Thirty-five people aboard died, along with one member of the ground crew, for a total of 36 fatalities. Dramatic photographs, newsreel footage, and a radio report made the disaster internationally famous.

Investigators never established a universally accepted cause of ignition. Static electricity, structural failure, and sabotage were among the theories, but sabotage was never proven. The disaster destroyed public confidence in hydrogen passenger airships and effectively ended the era of large commercial zeppelins. R101, Macon, and Graf Zeppelin were different airships and were not the craft destroyed at Lakehurst.