One of the longest enduring mysteries of the 20th Century has finally been solved. Researchers are now confident they know what caused the Hindenburg to explode over 76 years ago: static electricity.
A team of scientists led by British aeronautical engineer, Jem Stansfield, and based out of the South West Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas, determined the cause was static electricity while trying to disprove the numerous conspiracy theories surrounding the infamous crash, according to The Independent.
On May 6, 1937, as the Hindenburg prepared to land at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station in Manchester Township, N.J., the 803-foot airship suddenly spontaneously exploded, bursting into flames as it hurtled toward the ground, somehow only killing 35 out of the 100 passengers on board. The audience gathered to watch the spectacle, and indeed, the public at large - thanks to newsreel footage - were mesmerized by the unbelievable horror taking place right before their eyes. The tragedy captivated the nation. Conspiracy theories ran rampant in the wake of the disaster, purporting causes like a terrorist planting a bomb on the craft, someone shooting the craft down from the ground, or the Hindenburg's paint containing "explosive properties."
Even investigators of the time were split as to the true cause of the crash. Scientists agreed at the time that a spark had ignited hydrogen gas, but no one could agree just what had produced the spark, or the leaking gas, according to The Daily Mail.
In order to truly determine the cause of the Hindenburg's crash, scientists in the recent study created scale models of the ship more than 78-feet long, meticulously examined archival footage of the tragedy and also closely studied eyewitness accounts. The biggest breakthrough? The fire from the explosion appears to have begun on the tail-end of the airship, igniting the hydrogen. Researchers now believe the Hindenburg went through a thunderstorm that caused a build up of hydrogen, that when combined with electrostatic, caused the explosion.
"I think the most likely mechanism for providing the spark is electrostatic," said Stansfield, according to The Independent. "That starts at the top, then the flames from our experiments would've probably tracked down to the centre. With an explosive mixture of gas, that gave the whoomph when it got to the bottom."
Airship historian Dan Grossman agrees with Stansfield's assessment. "I think that's exactly what happened. I think you had massive distribution of hydrogen throughout the aft half of the ship; you had an ignition source pull down into the ship, and that whole back portion of the ship went up almost at once," Grossman said.
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