Few witnesses left to recall Hindenburg crash 70 years ago
It had been raining off and on that day. Around 7 p.m., the mighty German airship started approaching the field.
Suddenly, it exploded in a giant ball of fire and fell from the sky.
"My father saw it and started cursing," says Wicks, now 86 and a retired chemist and plastics expert living in Louisville. "We drove right onto the airfield, and Dad got involved in the rescue operation."
Thirty-six people would die as the 800-foot dirigible, the largest aircraft ever built, crashed onto the landing strip at Naval Air Station Lakehurst in New Jersey on May 6, 1937.
Wicks' late father, Zeno Sr., was a Goodyear Corp. engineer and a consultant to Hindenburg manufacturer Luftschiffbau Zeppelin; he advised shipbuilding operations at Lakehurst.
Wicks, who was 16 when he made that fateful trip to the airfield, is one of only a few remaining eyewitnesses to the tragedy...
[He] plans to attend the memorial service sponsored by the Navy Lakehurst Historical Society Inc. on Sunday at the site of the crash, at 7:25 p.m., the exact time it occurred.
A nonprofit group that preserves the Navy air station's history, the Lakehurst Historical Society has collected artifacts from the Hindenburg and kept contact with crash survivors.
Related Links
Hindenburg history and technical info (Navy Lakehurst Historical Society) Description of Hindenburg disaster, with video link (NAES Lakehurst)