Hindenburg

May 6, 1937 is the day of one of the most historical moments in New Jersey and even world history. It was 80-years ago Saturday the Hindenburg burst into flames and crashed near The Lakehurst Naval Air Station.

Werner Franz, the 14-year-old cabin boy who miraculously walked away from the Hindenburg explosion in Lakehurst in 1937, has died in his native Germany at age 93.

Tuesday, May 6, 2014, marks the 77th anniversary of a disaster that ended an era in air travel - and it all happened right here in New Jersey. On May 6, 1937, at around 7:25pm, the German airship Hindenburg burst into flames and crashed at what was then called Lakehurst Naval Air Station (now part of Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst)...

Seventy-six years ago this Monday, May 6, the skies over Lakehurst became a fiery furnace, fueled by hydrogen from the airship Hindenburg. The Navy Lakehurst Historical Society marks it with displays, discussions and observances Sunday and Monday.

As you've heard on 92.7 WOBM and read here at WOBM.com over the past few weeks, Ocean County has been getting ready to mark a major milestone in history. Not only Ocean County history, but world history.

Observances marking the date that the airship Hindenburg exploded over Lakehurst Naval Air Station take place every year. But our cultural need to turn certain years into benchmarks gives this weekend's ceremonies extra poignance.

Time has a way of softening memory. But the detonation, disintegration and death in Lakehurst 75 years ago when the airship Hindenburg burned remains sharply etched in the minds of the few still alive who witnessed it.

When people from all walks of life, from far corners of the earth, gather in Ocean County this weekend to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Hindenburg's fiery destruction in Lakehurst, it's another chapter in a perpetual tug-of-war between myth and reality.

As we mark three-quarters of a century since the German airship Hindenburg crashed and burned at Lakehurst Naval Air Station, the curators of the base's rich aviation history offer perspective of its meaning before and after the disaster.

What began as a routine run between Germany and New Jersey 75 years ago this Sunday ended as the most dramatic air disaster of its time in Lakehurst. The mighty airship Hindenburg disintegrated in a ball of flames, taking 35 lives with her.