‘The air was on fire,’ last Hindenburg survivor recalls
TRENTON, N.J. — Wind and thunderstorms had delayed the Hindenburg’s arrival in New Jersey from Germany on May 6, 1937. The father of 8-year-old Werner Doehner headed to his cabin after using his movie camera to shoot some scenes of Lakehurst Naval Air Station from the airship’s dining room.
“We didn’t see him again,” recalled Mr. Doehner, now 88 and the only person left of the 62 passengers and crew who survived the fire that killed his father, sister and 34 other souls 80 years ago Saturday.
Mr. Doehner and his parents, older brother and sister were returning from a vacation in Germany and planned to travel on the 804-footlong Hindenburg to Lakehurst, then fly to Newark and board a train in nearby New York City to take them home to Mexico City, where Mr. Doehner’s father was a pharmaceutical executive.
The children would have preferred the decks and public rooms of an ocean liner because space was tight on the airship, Mr. Doehner said in a rare telephone interview this week with The Associated Press from his home in Parachute, Colo.
Their mother brought games to keep the children busy. They toured the control car and the catwalks inside the hydrogen-filled Hindenburg.
As the Hindenburg arrived at its destination, flames began to flicker on top of the ship.
Hydrogen, exposed to air, fueled an inferno. The front section of the Hindenburg pitched up and the back section pitched down.
“Suddenly the air was on fire,” Mr. Doehner said.
“We were close to a window, and my mother took my brother and threw him out. She grabbed me and fell back and then threw me out,” he said.
“I remember lying on the ground, and my brother told me to get up and to get out of there.” Their mother joined them and asked a steward to get her daughter, whom he carried out of the burning wreckage.
A bus took the survivors to an infirmary, where, Mr. Doehner said, a nurse gave him a needle to burst his blisters.
From there, the family was taken to Point Pleasant Hospital. Mr. Doehner had burns to his face, both hands and down his right leg from the knee. His mother had burns to her face, both legs and both hands. His brother had several burns on his face and right hand. His sister died early in the morning. He would remain in the hospital for three months before going to a hospital in New York City in August for skin grafts. He was discharged in January, and the boy, a German speaker, had learned some English.
The family returned to Mexico City, where funerals were held for Mr. Doehner’s father and sister, who were among the 35 fatalities of the 97 passengers and crew aboard the airship. A worker on the ground also died.
The U.S. Commerce Department determined the accident was caused by a leak of the hydrogen that kept the airship aloft.
Eight decades later, Mr. Doehner is the only one left to remember what it was like on the Hindenburg that night. A ceremony commemorating the disaster will take place at the crash site Saturday night.