he last escape from theburning wreck seemed like hours according to survivors and witnesses. Theexplosions were devastating from the witnesses point of view. Learning about the explosions and the struggle to survive after thecrash, now brings us to the interesting fact about the inflation of hydrogen in theHindenburg itself. By far, the fact that the Hindenburg was not initially supposed tobe filled with the deadly and flammable gas hydrogen, is astounding. Dr. HugoEckner, the chairman of Zeppelin, had decided that it would be the wisest course toinflate the new ship with the nonflammable gas helium. However, there were two flaws in order to fill the ship with helium. First of all, the Zeppelin Company was ingreat need of money during this time of depression and large sums of money would beneeded to fill the ship with helium. More over, since the United States wasnt to fondof the Nazis acts , the U.S was not give their only natural deposits of helium to them because this would allow the Nazis to use the United States own power against them. Even after a meeting with President Roosevelt, the decision was made in the U.S.Congress not to give them the helium they needed. This made it impossible for theZeppelin Company to obtain the helium for their new ship, and forced them to inflatethe ship with the deadly gas hydrogen. The Hindenburg took 7 million cubic feet ofgas and at the current price of helium the cost to inflate all the ships air cells withhelium would have been $600,000. The Hindenburg was a huge gamble in a long line of gambles for the ZeppelinCompany. Though the airship still holds the record as the largest aircraft to ever fly,the fact that it was one of the worst mishaps ever and we need to learn from it is ofmore importance and people need to understand that. The final count was 35 dead ,including 13 passengers. Nearly two thirds of the 97 passengers on board survived,but the fa...
