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The German airship LZ 129 Hindenburg caught fire while mooring at Naval Air Station Lakehurst, New Jersey, on the evening of May 6, 1937, at the end of a transatlantic crossing from Frankfurt. The hydrogen-filled ship was consumed in about half a minute.

Thirty-five of the ninety-seven people on board were killed, along with one member of the ground crew. The ignition source was never established; investigators pointed to a hydrogen leak meeting an electrostatic discharge. The disaster ended commercial passenger airship travel.