USS Akron Disaster Remembered 80 Years Later [VIDEO]

History buffs are gathering near the New Jersey coastline today to commemorate the worst airship disaster in history…but it’s not the one you’re thinking of.

FOX News Radio’s Chris Hoenig reports from Lakehurst, NJ:

You remember the Hindenburg.

(Recording) “Oh, the humanity!”

But what about the USS Akron?

(Jablonski) “It was one of the largest airships. ?It was not armed, it was basically for scouting purposes, and also for showing the flag and for goodwill.”

Carl Jablonski runs the Navy Lakehurst Historical Society here at the Naval Air Station in Lakehurst, New Jersey. ?This is where the Akron launched from just before it crashed in the Atlantic during a storm on April 4, 1933 – 80 years ago today – in the worst airship disaster in U.S. history.

(Jablonski) “Seventy-three of 76 perished.”

More than twice the number killed on the Hindenburg, which crashed here four years later.

At the Naval Air Station in Lakehurst, New Jersey, Chris Hoenig, FOX News Radio.

WATCH more on the USS Akron at Lakehurst, NJ: