What Really Happened the Day the Largest Aircraft Crashed

Bright Side

The largest aircraft ever built met a disastrous fate when it crashed, leaving the world in shock. This massive airship, known for its size and advanced design, went down in a fiery disaster that no one saw coming. Among the chaos, an acrobat on board actually survived—which sounds like something out of a movie! Using incredible reflexes and quick thinking, they managed to escape the wreckage while others weren’t so lucky. Investigators later pieced together what went wrong, uncovering a mix of technical failures and bad luck that led to the catastrophe. Today, this crash remains one of the most shocking and tragic events in aviation history, with the acrobat's survival adding an unbelievable twist.   Animation is created by Bright Side. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/   Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV   Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our Social Media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brightside Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en Telegram: https://t.me/bright_side_official   Stock materials (photos, footages and other): https://www.depositphotos.com https://www.shutterstock.com https://www.eastnews.ru ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.

Transcript

00:00The German airship Hindenburg was the largest aircraft ever built in terms of its height,

00:06length, and volume.

00:08And when I say the largest, I mean more than three times longer than a Boeing 747, and

00:13only 80 feet shorter than the Titanic.

00:16It had 25 cabins for two passengers each, a restaurant, and a bar with a piano – everything

00:23you need for a long cruise.

00:25The airship was supposed to use helium to soar in the sky, but because of restrictions

00:29in the U.S., it had to be filled with flammable hydrogen.

00:33Between 1936 and 1937, it made 63 flights, several over the Atlantic to the U.S. and

00:39South America.

00:41At 7.25 p.m. on May 6, 1937, as it was landing in New Jersey, the Hindenburg caught fire,

00:49and in just moments, it was completely covered in flames.

00:53The ship started to fall quickly.

00:55Moments later, the tail of the Hindenburg crashed into the ground, and a burst of flame

00:59came out of its massive nose.

01:02What was left of the airship burned for several more hours.

01:05This tragedy took the lives of 35 out of the 97 people on board.

01:11Joseph Spah, an acrobat better known as Ben Dover, managed to survive the accident despite

01:17all odds, mainly thanks to his acrobatic skills.

01:24In his first year of transatlantic service, the Hindenburg airship made 10 successful

01:29trips to the United States from Germany and 7 trips between Germany and Brazil.

01:34It started the next year's season with a trip to Brazil in March.

01:38On May 3 of the same year, it left Germany for the first of 10 planned round trips between

01:43Europe and the U.S.

01:45The trip across the Atlantic was uneventful, except for some strong winds that made the

01:49airship go slower than usual.

01:52The Hindenburg only had about half its full capacity of passengers, 36 instead of 70,

01:58and 61 crew members.

02:00The airship was already running late when it flew over Boston on the morning of May

02:056.

02:06It was supposed to land at Lakehurst, New Jersey, but bad weather caused further delays.

02:11Captain Max Pruess heard about the thunderstorms and decided to fly over Manhattan, New York.

02:17People ran outside to see the giant airship floating over the city.

02:21By 6.22 pm, the storms had cleared, and the Hindenburg headed back to Lakehurst to land.

02:28Since the airship was almost half a day late, there wasn't enough time to prepare it for

02:32the next trip to Europe, and the public wasn't allowed to visit or come aboard during its day.

02:38Around 7 pm, the Hindenburg was floating at 650 feet in the air and was about to do a

02:44special kind of landing called a flying moor.

02:48The airship would drop ropes from high up and then be slowly pulled down to the ground.

02:54This landing would need fewer people on the ground to help, but it would take longer than usual.

02:59A few minutes later, the wind suddenly changed, and the captain had to turn the airship sharply

03:04to keep it on track, but it still wasn't perfectly balanced.

03:08At 7.21 pm, the Hindenburg was floating at 295 feet in the air when the crew dropped

03:14its ropes to start the landing.

03:17As the ground crew grabbed the ropes, a light rain started to fall.

03:21A couple of minutes later, some people noticed the fabric of the airship was rippling, as

03:26if gas was leaking.

03:28Others saw a dim blue flame, which might've been static electricity or a rare natural

03:33phenomenon called St. Elmo's fire.

03:36Moments later, flames erupted on top of the ship near the back.

03:41Inside the airship, people heard a soft blast, and those at the front felt a jolt.

03:46The officers in charge at first thought the shock was from a rope snapping, but soon realized

03:51something much worse was happening.

03:58The Hindenburg caught fire, and it was spreading quickly.

04:01Soon the back of the ship collapsed.

04:03Two tanks with either water or fuel inside blew up out of the ship's body.

04:08The front part of the Hindenburg started to lurch upwards, while the back broke and began

04:13to fall.

04:14All of this happened while news crews were filming, but no footage shows exactly when

04:18the fire began.

04:21One of the survivors of the accident was Joseph Spa.

04:25He was a professional vaudeville comic acrobat whose family emigrated from Strasbourg, France

04:30to Long Island, New York when he was a kid.

04:33At the moment of the accident, he was sitting in the portside dining salon.

04:37He immediately realized he had no time to spare and smashed the window with his movie

04:42camera.

04:43He had it in his hands, prepared to film the landing.

04:46Then he leaned out of the window and held on to the window ledge.

04:50When the ship came close to the ground, about 20 feet up, he let go and jumped to the ground.

04:56He knew how to land safely, so he kept his feet under him.

05:00Even though he hurt his ankle, he survived the fire and the fall.

05:04Joseph started crawling away from the airship when a sailor slung him over his shoulder

05:08and helped to get him to safety.

05:10There his family was already waiting for him.

05:15Later, some of the Hindenburg crew members accused Joseph Spa of sabotaging the ship.

05:22The reason for this was that they had caught the acrobat going by himself to the back of

05:26the ship several times to feed his dog, Eula.

05:29He wasn't allowed to do it and got scorned by the chief steward.

05:33The place where the dog was kept was close to where the fire started.

05:37So some people thought Spa could've used those visits to sneak in and plant something

05:42that would cause an explosion.

05:44A few stewards also mentioned they noticed Spa had been really mad because of the delayed

05:49landing.

05:50But he had been away from his family for months, so he probably just wanted to get home quickly.

05:56When the acrobat learned about these suspicions, he was so shocked he nearly fell off the ladder

06:01he was standing on to clean windows.

06:03In the end, there was no proof that he was guilty of anything.

06:07The family doctor recommended Joseph take up ice skating to regain strength faster.

06:12So once he recovered, he started performing his most famous bend-over act on ice.

06:20We still don't know for sure what caused the fire and blast inside the Hindenburg airship.

06:26It was most likely a discharge of atmospheric electricity that ignited the hydrogen gas

06:31cells.

06:32Zeppelin airships didn't stop their flights right after the tragedy.

06:36But by the end of the 1930s, airplanes had become way more popular and safer than airships.

06:43Airships with their slow speeds, the high risk of trouble in stormy weather, and the

06:47difficulty in supplying them with helium became completely outdated.

06:52The Hindenburg accident did have a huge effect on the future of the aviation industry.

06:57It focused on using materials that wouldn't catch fire so easily.

07:02Engineers invented new foolproof and self-extinguishing fabrics and insulation.

07:07They also stopped using dangerous hydrogen gas in airships and switched to much safer

07:11helium.

07:12To make sure fires could be put out quickly, engineers created special systems to detect

07:18and suppress fires.

07:19They improved emergency exits and safety tools like floor lights and escape slides with the

07:24new Emergency Response Protocol, the 90-second evacuation rule.

07:29It requires airplanes to be designed in such a way that passengers and crew can evacuate

07:34within 90 seconds in case of an emergency.

07:38Speaking of crew, from that point on, they would need to take a mandatory training program

07:43to learn basic firefighting techniques and be prepared for possible crisis situations

07:48during the flight.

07:50The Federal Aviation Administration was established in 1958.

07:54They started doing risk assessments for planes to make sure they were safe before they would

07:59be allowed to transport passengers.

08:01They also introduced black-box recording devices to make it easier to investigate the reasons

08:06for accidents and analyze that data to prevent new tragedies.

08:10Plus, they started to strictly control the transportation of hazardous materials, such

08:15as flammable liquids and gases.

08:20That's it for today!

08:21So, hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your

08:26friends!

08:27And if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!

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