Hindenburg Mystery Solved after 76 Years, Static Charge Responsible for Accident

It's been 76 years since the Hindenburg exploded mid-air and killed 35 passengers and crew members. And now, researchers have pinpointed the exact reason for the disaster at Lakehurst, New Jersey.

The Daily Mail has reported that the famous airship exploded due to static charge as the ship passed through a thunderstorm and a gas valve that leaked hydrogen. The ship caught fire when it was grounded after the crew on the land ran to take the landing ropes.

The mystery was solved by researchers from Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio led by Jem Stansfield, a British aeronautical engineer. Researchers experimented with scale models of the airship to understand why the disaster occurred. Popular theories on the disasters (that have now been debunked) include a bomb explosion and inflammable paint used on the ship.

Stanfield and other experts will be explaining the events that led to the disaster in a documentary that is scheduled to be aired on Channel 4 in Britain on Thursday.

"I think you had massive distribution of hydrogen throughout the aft half of the ship; you had an ignition source pull down into the ship, and that whole back portion of the ship went up almost at once," said airship historian Dan Grossman, reports The Daily Mail.

The Hindenburg or LZ-129 was the fastest way to travel between Europe and North America in its time. And, though it led to many technological achievements, it is better known for the disaster that ended the era of gas-filled airships.