Facts and sources · 《興登堡號：四分鐘與三十二秒》 (The Hindenburg: Four Minutes and Thirty-two Seconds)
Every fact in the film's on-screen text, subtitles and narration, listed with its source and the source's wording. Checked on 2026-10-20; before the last render, each item was compared one by one against the subtitles in audio/lines.json and film.json.
Main source R: US Department of Commerce, "Report of Airship "Hindenburg" Accident Investigation", Air Commerce Bulletin vol. 9 no. 2, 1937-08-15 (signed by South Trimble Jr., R. W. Schroeder, Denis Mulligan). No downloadable scan of the original publication was found; the text transcription at https://www.airships.net/?p=2041 is used (LibriVox reads the same text: https://librivox.org/report-of-the-airship-hindenburg-accident-investigation-by-united-states-department-of-commerce ). All times in the report are US Eastern Standard Time (E.S.T.): "All times reported herein, unless otherwise indicated, are Eastern Standard Time (E.S.T.)."
Other sources: FBI = FBI Hindenburg file, part 1 (https://archive.org/details/HindenburgFBI , Hindenburg 01.pdf); NR = Universal Newsreel special release, 1937-05-10 (https://archive.org/details/1937-05-10_Special_Release_Zeppelin_Explodes ).
On-screen text in the film is Chinese; it is quoted as it appears, with an English gloss.
On screen / narration
| In the film | Claim | Source and wording |
|---|---|---|
| Location strap "新澤西 · 萊克赫斯特" (New Jersey · Lakehurst); VO1 "May sixth, 1937. The Hindenburg reaches Lakehurst, hours late." | Date and place of the accident; several hours later than planned | R: "was destroyed by fire at 6:25 P.M., E.S.T., May 6, 1937, at the Naval Air Station, Lakehurst, New Jersey." / "was due at Lakehurst on the morning of Thursday, May 6 … Because of unfavorable winds encountered en route, its arrival at Lakehurst was deferred until 6:00 P.M." |
| Wind chart band "雷暴" (thunderstorm) (15:43–16:45) | Thunderstorm period recorded by the air station | R: "The records of the Naval Air Station show that the thunderstorm began at 3:43 P.M. and ended at 4:45 P.M." |
| Wind chart band "陣雨" (showers) (17:00–18:00) | Shower period | R: "Several heavy showers occurred between 5:00 and 6:00 P.M., with accompanying thunder." |
| Radio message 16:42 "…RECOMMEND DELAY LANDING…" / "建議推遲著陸" (recommend delaying the landing) | Sent by the air station to the airship | R: "At 4:42 P.M., the commander of the station radioed the ship: Conditions still unsettled recommend delay landing until further word from station advise your decision." |
| Radio message 16:52 "WE WILL WAIT…" / "我們等著" (we will wait); VO2 "The ship waits." | The airship's reply | R: "At 4:52 P.M., the commander of the ship replied: 'We will wait till you report that landing conditions are better.'" |
| Radio message 17:22 "RECOMMEND LANDING NOW." | Sent by the air station to the airship | R: "At 5:22 P.M. station commander radioed ship: 'Recommend landing now.'" |
| Radio message 18:08 "…RECOMMEND EARLIEST POSSIBLE LANDING." | The last message | R: "At 6:08 P.M. station commander sent last message: 'Conditions definitely improved recommend earliest possible landing.'" |
| VO2 "The station's answer: delay landing." | Summary of the 16:42 message | As above (16:42) |
| Wind chart "17:12 · 8 節" (17:12 · 8 knots) | Surface wind in the 17:12 message (the gusts are not shown on screen) | R: "At 5:12 P.M. … surface wind west-southwest eight knots gusts to 20 knots" |
| Wind chart "18:00 · 4 節" (18:00 · 4 knots) | Surface wind in the 18:00 message | R: "At 6:00 P.M. station transmitted to ship: '… surface wind west-southwest four knots gusts under 10 knots …'" |
| Wind chart "≈ 著陸 · 1 節" (≈ landing · 1 knot) | Surface wind at the start of the landing; placing the point at 18:18 is only illustrative (the report gives no exact time, hence the ≈) | R: "surface wind light, variable and shifting and at the precise moment of the beginning of the landing was southeast 1 knot." |
| VO3 "At six twenty-one, the ropes go down"; plan view "18:21 放繩處" (18:21 ropes dropped here), "30°"; conclusion graphic "放繩" (ropes dropped) | The bow landing ropes are dropped, bearing 30° from the mooring mast | R: "At 6:21 P.M., the bow trail ropes were dropped, on a bearing of 30 degrees from the mooring mast" |
| VO3 "at least seven hundred feet from the mast"; plan view "≥ 700 ft" | Distance from the mast | R: "At no time during the approach did the ship come closer to the mooring mast than 700 feet." |
| "放繩後 4 分鐘 · 18:21 → 18:25" (4 minutes after the ropes · 18:21 → 18:25); conclusion graphic "4 分鐘" (4 minutes) | Interval from the ropes dropping to the fire | R: "Ship was first observed afire at 6:25 P.M."; R also has "the four-minute interval between the dropping of the trail ropes and the accident" |
| VO4 "Seconds before the fire, a man on the ground sees the cover flutter, near cell five."; quotation "a noticeable fluttering of the outer cover"; "抖動 · 5 號氣囊" (flutter · cell No. 5) | Ward's testimony (as summarised in the report) | R: "Witness R.H. Ward, in charge of the port bow landing party, a couple of seconds before the fire, had his attention attracted by a noticeable fluttering of the outer cover on the top port side between frames 62 and 77, which includes cell No. 5." |
| Side view gas cells numbered 1–16, No. 1 at the stern ("船頭" bow and "船尾" stern marked at the two ends) | Number of cells and direction of numbering | R: "In each of the sixteen compartments of the ship was a gas cell" / "The cells were numbered from stern to bow, from 1 to 16." |
| Testimony page + quotation "a burst of flame just forward of the port fin" | Testimony of Lt. Tyler (the Navy mooring officer) | FBI part 1 p.39: "in this position, he noticed a burst of flame just forward of the port fin and just above the longitudinal axis of the ship"; R calls Tyler "the mooring officer, Witness Tyler" |
| Source audio C1 "a roar and a burst of flame near the big tail fins" | Commentary of the 1937-05-10 newsreel (a claim of the time, not used as a factual source, only as an "agrees" comparison) | NR src 78.1–81.6 s |
| Photo annotation circle "船尾上方" (above the stern) | Position of the fire and of the bow in the Pasquarella photograph | The photograph itself (Commons description: "taken during the initial explosion", see SOURCES.md) |
| Report quotation "…on the top of the ship forward of the entering edge of the vertical fin over Cells 4 and 5."; VO5 "above gas cells four and five" | The ignition point the report settles on | R: "we conclude that the first open flame, produced by the burning of the ship's hydrogen, appeared on the top of the ship forward of the entering edge of the vertical fin over Cells 4 and 5." |
| VO6 "From first flame to impact: thirty-two seconds."; "32 秒" (32 seconds); quotation "…first glimpse of flame and the impact … was 32 seconds." | The 32 seconds is the report's estimate | R: "It is estimated that the interval between the first glimpse of flame and the impact of the main body of the ship with the ground was 32 seconds." |
| Teletype "商務部週一上午十點開公開調查" (Commerce Department opens a public inquiry Monday at 10 a.m.), label "FBI 電傳 · 1937-05-08" (FBI teletype · 1937-05-08) | How the inquiry began | FBI part 1 p.13 (teletype 5-8-37): "MAJOR R W SCHROEDER AND SOUTH TRIMBLE OF DEPT OF COMM. WILL START OPEN INQUIRY MONDAY AT TEN AM AS TO WRECK." |
| Established "起火：船頂，4–5 號氣囊上方" (fire: top of the ship, above cells 4–5) | Same ignition point as above | Same as VO5 |
| Established "首見火光到觸地：32 秒" (first flame to impact: 32 seconds) | As above | Same as VO6 |
| Established "原因：洩漏的氫氣被點燃" (cause: leaking hydrogen, ignited); VO7 "The inquiry names the cause: leaking hydrogen, ignited." | The report's conclusion | R: "The cause of the accident was the ignition of a mixture of free hydrogen and air. Based upon the evidence, a leak at or in the vicinity of cell 4 and 5 caused a combustible mixture of hydrogen and air to form in the upper stern part of the ship in considerable quantity" |
| Not established "氫氣怎麼漏出來" (how the hydrogen leaked) | The report gives only possibilities (e.g. a snapped shear wire), and settles on none | R: "A shear wire in one of the panels at the place from which the gas was escaping could have snapped while the ship was turning"; "As yet, with the few exceptions to be noted, no more has been provided than a hypothetical approach to the answer." |
| Not established "火源：刷形放電，僅稱'最可能'" (ignition source: brush discharge, called only 'most probable'); VO7 "The spark itself remains a theory." | The ignition source is only the most probable inference | R: "The theory that a brush discharge ignited such mixture appears most probable." |
| Not established "蓄意破壞：查無證據" (sabotage: no evidence found) | The report looked into sabotage and found no evidence | R: "To date, there is no evidence to indicate that sabotage produced the grim result." |
| Source audio C2 "taking the lives of almost half its 99 passengers and crew" (struck through) | The newsreel's figure of the time, which disagrees with the report | NR src 40.4–44.7 s |
| Check "機上 97 人 · 遇難 35" (97 on board · 35 died); "據商務部報告" (per the Commerce Department report); dot grid "乘客 36" (passengers 36), "機組 61" (crew 61) | Number on board and deaths | R: "the personnel on board, including officers, numbered 61, of whom 22 died" / "36 persons besides the Crew were on board. Of these, 13 died" (61 + 36 = 97; 22 + 13 = 35) |
| Check "另有地勤 1 人遇難" (plus 1 ground crew member died); dot grid ground crew 1 | Ground crew | R: "One member of the ground crew died as a result of burns received during the accident." |
| VO8 "Thirty-six people died."; "36 人遇難" (36 died) | 35 + 1 = 36 | The two items above |
| Map label "USGS 1947"; map credit on the end card | Date of the map | USGS Lakehurst NJ 1:24,000, 1947 edition (SOURCES.md) |
The film's inferences (all marked as such in the film)
- Photo camera position / view cone: inferred from the relative position of the foreground mooring mast and the airship in the Pasquarella photograph; labelled "推斷" (inferred).
- Newsreel camera position: not found, so no camera position is drawn on screen.
- Photo times: Pasquarella ≈T+2 s (Commons description "taken during the initial explosion"); NH 57973 ≈T+26 s (matched against the airship's attitude in the newsreel); both marked ≈.
- Footage alignment: the newsreel's main-body impact (source 01:43.6) is aligned to the report's +32 s, which puts the start of the newsreel at about 7 s after the first flame; there is an exposure splice at source 01:43.3, error ±1–2 s. In the three-column grid the newsreel column lights up only at ≈T+7 s; there is no placeholder box and no small-print note on the alignment error.
- Plan view: a diagram with the mooring mast as origin, drawn to scale in feet; the 1947 map does not show the mooring mast of 1937, so the plan view is not laid over the map; only a locator inset is used.
- Side view: 16 gas cells of equal size, not to exact scale, labelled "示意" (schematic).
- The "landing begins" point in the wind chart: the report gives no time; the point is placed at 18:18 and marked ≈.
Material used as picture only, not as a factual source
- FBI part 1 p.7 (memo from the evening of 1937-05-06) gives 6:25 for the ropes, 210 ft and casualty figures that disagree with the final report; the film does not use it.
- The newsreel commentary (1937-05-10) appears only as "the claim of the time": one line agrees with the report (fire near the tail fins), one is corrected by the check ("近半" (almost half), "99 人" (99 people)).
- The newsreel's Archive description ("explodes three hundred feet over the landing field") disagrees with the report ("descended to about 135 to 150 feet when the accident happened"); the film does not use it.