The Waterbury Democrat., 1937-05-07

 Rear Admiral William Mofett, died when the Akron went down in 1883 but it was the first to occur close to the earth in full view of hun dreds of spectators. For this req son, airship experts hoped to obtain invaluable knowledge.
 Left Frankfort Tuesday
 The Hindenburg left Frankfort, Germany Tuesday on the first of this seasons flights to the United States. Last summer she had cruised back and forth over the north Alt lantic, carrying hundreds of pas sengers without the slightest mis- hap.
 Of Newfoundland she encounter ed headwinds, and she came down the New England coast yesterday 12 hours late. In mid afternoon she sailed over Manhattan, proud, stable, the queen of the skies. At 5 D.. m. (EST) sine appeared over the LakehurSt station, her ;Amef- ican terminal, where the civilian ground crew. was waiting. A*thun- der storm came up suddenly and with it, binding rain. She scared of to await its end.
 !. At 6 p. m. she came again over the field. The rain by now was a drizzle. Around the hangar awaited several ., hundred civilians, many sight-seers, but among them were relatives and friends of her passen- gers, also the American friends Ot members of the crews.
 k The crowd. was thrilled by her she appeared tearfully beautiful as her great bulk settled closer and closer to earth. The crowd could see the passengers at the windows, waving and shouting; 1t heard the commands rumbling down from the control cabin through Inegapnones. Trail ropes dropped out of her tail Another rope dropped out If her nose. Now she was 200 feet from the crowd. Screams Heard
 Suddenly a shrill scream broke out from among the crowd of on- lockers. A woman had see na puff of flame appear at the top of the ship toward the rear, then race along towards its noce. For an instant, the silence was so absolute that the rippling of flames was audible. The screams and shouts and hysterical weeping lifted toward the ship which by now was shooting up great column of flame and smoke There was a terrific explosion and for miles around window paneS shook and bodies came hurtling out of the ship, falling among the spec tators and ground crew.
 The instinct for self preservation seized the persons on ground at the same instant. It looked as though the great mass of flame was falling directly upon them, and they scat tered, some shouting in their terror in all directions. Then courage re- turned to some and they turned back. The nose of the Hindenbure had gone up, her tail down, ano she was buckling a little just aft of her middle where the column o1 fire now was centered. More bodies came pummeling down-passengers and crew who were saving them selves. Then, with crash, the Hin den hit the ground, enmassed IT flames from one end to the other
 GrOtesque Figures
 Grotesque, piteous figures appear ed from the flames. There was man entirely nude, running a' though possessed. The explosion had ripped every stitch from hii body. Another naxed man-anotne' and another. There was a maI whose hair had been burned on woman and a man bleeding pro fusely from fee wounds-a mai whose face was raw, whose fascia flesh hung in little appendageS 1ron tiny strips of flesh.
 Then a bleeding figure staggered from the fire It was clad m uni form that had been torn and TIP ped. Its face was begrimed ana cus its blue eyes stared strangely !! was Captain LehInann, a driglpi captain whose experience went pacl to the world war, next to Eckene in the Zeppelin works.
 ~ can't understand how 1t hap pened,p he said shakily. addressin no one. T can't understand hoy
 Body Picked Up
 They picked up the body of cap tain Priss from the field. He wa badly burnt, <,
 Captain Hans Wittenmann, tn third commander of the Zeppelr company aboard, who was riding a observed, was not hurt.
 Ambulances were assembled m Imediately while members of ph ground crew pulled as many as the l could of the persons still in tn wreckage to safety. Soldiers frol l lCarnp Dix arrived. Within a hal l hour the naval reservation VI lclosed and soldiers patrolled q Iouter limits. Through the night tn lxescue work proceeded.