PBS Hindenburg Film Shares 'Overlooked' Footage Of Explosion

LAKEHURST, NJ — For more than 80 years, investigators have tried to figure out what caused the spark that led to the Hindenburg going up in flames as it prepared to land at Lakehurst Naval Air Station in 1937.

On Wednesday, new "Nova" documentary is set to air on PBS that digs into the question and offers some scientific insights. "Hindenburg: The New Evidence" is set to air at 9 p.m. Eastern on PBS, and will be available for streaming online, according to the network.

The new look at the May 6, 1937, disaster was prompted by a conversation at the 80th anniversary commemoration outside Hangar One of the fire and crash that killed 35 people on board and one person on the ground. Dan Grossman, a renowned expert on airships including Hindenburg, was approached at the commemoration by Robert Schenck, a New Jersey resident whose uncle, Harold N. Schenck, had filmed the disaster.

Though Harold Schenck tried to share his amateur film — which shows the disaster from a different angle than the newsreel films — with government investigators at the time, it was largely overlooked, his nephew says in the "Nova" film.

The "Nova" documentary not only shares the footage, which provided new clues to re-examine the cause of the explosion, but the scientific experiments that helped investigators come to a fresh understanding of what set off the fire.

The original investigations into the Hindenburg crash concluded the fire was a result of leaking hydrogen ignited by a spark, but no one had been able to determine what caused the spark.

Eyewitness accounts suggested the fire started near the tail of the airship, but supporting evidence was hard to find until the unseen Schenck footage was examined. Newsreel recordings of the disaster begin after the fire is well underway, and most physical evidence was destroyed immediately in the blaze.

Grossman has the footage authenticated as part of the investigation. Then he and Jason O. Harris, a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel and commercial airline pilot trained in accident investigation, along with Konstantinos Giapis, a professor of chemical engineering at Caltech, examine clues provided by the Schenck footage to reach new theories about why and how the explosion happened the way it did.

"Thanks to this stunning new footage, we were able to revive a cold case investigation surrounding one of the most iconic disasters of the 20th century," said Gary Tarpinian, the film's executive producer.

"This film not only reveals new insights into how this tragic event unfolded, but also illustrates the enormous scale of the disaster," said Kirk Wolfinger, the director.

"The Hindenburg remains vivid in our collective memories all these years later because of the searing images and film of the explosion," said Chris Schmidt, the co-executive producer of "Nova." "We feel honored to share this new footage with the world and to bring the 'Nova' audience behind the scenes of this pivotal new investigation into the crash."

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