What year did the Hindenburg disaster occur?

The Hindenburg disaster occurred in 1937. On May 6 of that year, the German passenger airship LZ 129 Hindenburg caught fire while attempting to land at Naval Air Station Lakehurst in New Jersey.

The Hindenburg was a rigid airship filled with highly flammable hydrogen. It had departed Frankfurt on May 3 and was completing a transatlantic flight when it approached Lakehurst after weather delays. The ship became engulfed in flames and collapsed to the ground 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. The disaster was photographed and recorded by news organizations, including the famous radio eyewitness account by Herbert Morrison.

Investigators generally considered static electricity igniting leaking hydrogen the most likely explanation, though the precise ignition sequence remains debated. The catastrophe badly damaged public confidence in commercial passenger airships.