The Hindenburg is undoubtedly the most famous of the many airship disasters that plagued the airships of the 1920s and 1930s. But it is far from the only airship crash and not even the most deadly (35 out of 97 people on the ship died). It may surprise many, but most airships did not explosively catch fire like the Hindenburg (although some others did). The United States Navy received (or was to receive) five large airships and all but one of them fatally crashed.