Records the dramatic events which led to the destruction of the great zeppelin, the Hindenburg, in 1937 during its journey to America.
Mooney's reconstruct of the voyage utilizes existing documentary files, secondary sources, fresh interviews with survivors (quite a few are still around), and an enchantment with extraneous detail which might just as well have been left out, e.g., the pipe smoking Captain Lehmann ""paused to perfect the seating of his tobacco in its bowl."" Among all the puffery is Mooney's contention that a young crewman, rigger Eric Spehl who had apocalyptic visions of striking a ""blow at this symbol of the State,"" planted a bomb in one of the craft's gas cells, intending to detonate it after landing; the timing device must have failed, Mooney believes (but Spehl perished in the holocaust, so you'll never know for sure). This is very similar to A. A. Hoehling's Who Destroyed the Hindenburg? (1962) which also opted for sabotage and was excessively florid.