Hindenburg vs Titanic: Survival Rates

The Hindenburg disaster is often compared with the sinking of the Titanic, and there is a common misconception that the Hindenburg crash was more deadly.  In fact, the opposite is true.

Only 32% of those on the Titanic’s maiden voyage survived the sinking.  For certain groups of people, such as Third Class passengers and crew, the survival rate was even lower, and Second and Third Class men fared even worse; only 10% of Second Class men (15 of 157) and 14% of Third Class men (69 of 476) survived the sinking.

In contrast, the majority of passengers and crew on the Hindenburg’s last flight survived the disaster (which was not caused by the flammability of the Hindenburg’s covering, which is another misconception).

Survival Rate on Hindenburg

Survival Rate on Titanic

Figures for the Titanic tragedy differ slightly among various sources, but the numbers presented by the United States Senate Inquiry are generally representative:

Titanic survival rates as determined by United States Senate Inquiry (click to enlarge)

A comparison of the two disasters reflects especially poorly on the officers of the Titanic.  The Hindenburg disaster took less than a minute, and survival was largely a matter of chance.  The RMS Titanic, on the other hand, took almost two and a half hours to sink, and the ship remained level for much of that time; if the Titanic’s officers had acted with competence and professionalism there could have been an orderly evacuation.  Instead, many of Titanic’s lifeboats were launched less than half full.  Tragedy on a large scale was unavoidable, given the shortage of lifeboats carried by Titanic, but an orderly evacuation, taking full advantage of the lifeboats’ capacity to hold 1,178 persons, would have saved almost 500 additional lives.

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