The German Zeppelin-Hindenburg, Queen of the Skies, seen here from a Universal Newsreel
camera plane as it sped over New York to its tragic end at Lakehurst, New Jersey, now lies
at the Naval Air Station a twisted mass of metal.
Shortly after these pictures were taken, showing the great skyliner saluting the millions watching
it from below on its first trip of the season, the huge craft exploded while docking and
blazed to a fiery end, taking the lives of almost half its 99 passengers and crew.
Hours late on its trip from Hamburg because of headwinds, the Zeppelin had to ride out
a thunderstorm along the Jersey coast before heading for the air station and nosing its
way to the mooring mast.
The wind is bad and the docking is a ticklish one, but it's all a thrill for the crowd
of happy passengers eager to land after their transoceanic trip.
Slowly the big ship warps in and the ground crews rush for the mooring line.
In another 10 minutes or so the great aircraft would have been snugly docked, but as the
passengers crowded the windows to watch, a roar and a burst of flame near the big tail
fins turned the ship into a flaming inferno.
Passengers and crew, the fortunate among them, fell or jumped and were dragged to safety
before the fiery furnace took their lives.
Heroic work by navy and army men risking their lives around the white-hot skeleton snatched
more than one dazed and half-burned passenger from the blazing wreckage, but for the most
of those trapped in the incandescent tangle, there was no hope.
It was the greatest of miracles that anyone came out of the disaster alive.
Seven million cubic feet of inflammable hydrogen gas blazed up in less than a minute.
The hundreds of tons of fuel oil burns for an hour or more with its dense black smoke
making a pall over the tragic scene.
In all the history of air disasters, this is the worst, the most terrible.
Hailed as the luxury liner of the air, the Hindenburg's horrible end has shocked the
entire world.
The pride of the skies reaches its journey's end.