Fascinating Facts You Didn't Know About The Hindenburg And Its Untimely Demise

The airship had 97 passengers and crew members on board when it burst into flames, but less than half were killed in the disaster. Thirteen passengers, 22 crew members, and one worker on the ground perished. One of the more gory details of the incident was that passengers were forced to jump in an effort to save themselves.

Some of these jumpers survived as the Zeppelin was close enough to landing to be near the ground. Others either did not survive the jump or couldn't run away from the aircraft before it ran aground. 

People remember the Hindenburg disaster because of both the famous film footage that was shot when it occurred and because of the eyewitness report by Herbert Morrison - who muttered the now famous line, "Oh, the humanity!"

However, this wasn't the first or most deadly airship crash on record at the time. In 1933, the U.S. Navy airship USS Akron got caught up in a major storm and crashed off the coast of New Jersey. In that disaster, only three passengers survived and 73 died. Additionally, in 1930, the British military airship R101 crashed resulting in 48 lives lost.

In 1936, the Hindenburg made its first public flight alongside other ships to gain support for a referendum ratifying the reoccupation of the Rhineland. Loudspeakers on the airship blared patriotic music and pro-Hitler propaganda. The airship also dropped leaflets and swastika flags on cities in Germany. Notably, the airship itself was adorned with swastikas on its tail fins.

The Hindenburg was filled with seven million cubic feet of hydrogen gas, but that didn't stop the ship's designers from including a smoking lounge on board. Passengers were banned from bringing their own matches and lighters on the ship but they could buy cigarettes and Cuban cigars once aboard.

Smokers had to use a special pressurized room that prevented hydrogen from coming inside. A steward escorted people into the room to make sure they were abiding by safety protocol and no cigars, cigarettes, or pipes were allowed out of the room still lit.  

One of the functions of a Zeppelin at the time was its use in delivering airmail service across the Atlantic. On its fateful last voyage, the Hindenburg was carrying an estimated 17,000 pieces of mail. Most of it was destroyed, but 176 pieces survived because they were stored in a protective container. While they were charred from the fire, they were still readable. The mail was postmarked four days after the airship was destroyed and is highly valuable among modern collectors.

Paul Joseph Goebbels, the Reich Minister of Propaganda of Nazi Germany and a close associate of Adolf Hitler, wanted the airship to be named after the Führer. Dr. Hugo Eckener, the head of the Zeppelin company, was anti-Nazi and instead named the airship for late German president Paul von Hindenburg.

Hitler wasn't exactly enamored with airships to begin with and after the crash was likely especially grateful not to have shared a name with the doomed vehicle.