Davin News Server

70 Years Ago, Hurricane Hunters Got Their Start In The Great Atlantic Hurricane 
of 1944

Seventy years ago, four U.S. Army Air Forces crews made seven flights into the 
Great Atlantic Hurricane of 1944, proving the value of direct reports from 
inside tropical cyclones for forecasting purposes. Since then, air crews who 
have flown into hurricanes continue to help the National Hurricane Center make 
better, life-saving forecasts.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-
gang/files/2014/09/openhouse_2011_1-1024x680.jpg

Even with our advanced satellites and computer models, National Hurricane 
Center forecasters consider the information collected by airplanes flying 
directly through hurricanes invaluable for predictions.

(DO they fly at wave levels? No... so their "wind speeds are going to be a 
little "off")

And, to answer a common question: since those first 1944 flights, hurricane 
hunter airplanes, and the men and women aboard them, fly directly into 
hurricanes directly through the eye, usually more than 10,000 feet above the 
ocean.

In addition to helping forecasters with predictions of particular storms, data 
collected on hundreds of flights over the years are the foundation of the 
knowledge needed to forecast storms and to build the steadily improving 
computer models that aid forecasters.

The September 1944 flights were made by the 53d Weather Reconnaissance 
Squadron, which flew WB-25Ds with extra fuel tanks that allowed longer flights 
than the airplane's bomber version.

A North American B-25, like the plane flown into the Great Atlantic Hurricane 
of 1944. (U.S. Air Force)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/files/2014/09/b25.jpg

The 53rd Squadron is now an Air Force Reserve unit that flies WC 130s into 
hurricanes from Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Miss. As in 1944, the 
squadron's primary duty remains hurricane reconnaissance - collecting detailed 
data on the storm's location and characteristics for National Hurricane Center 
forecasters.

The only other organization in the world that flies airplanes with people on 
board directly into hurricanes is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 
Administration's Aircraft Operations Center at based at MacDill Air Force Base 
in Tampa, Fl. It uses two Lockheed WP-3 Orion hurricane hunters, which fly into 
hurricanes primarily for research. When one of these airplanes is conducting 
research inside a hurricane it also supplies a continuous stream of data to 
forecasters, like the Air Force WC 130s.

The NOAA WP-3D called "Miss Piggy." (NOAA)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-
gang/files/2014/09/p3close.jpg

In 70 years of hurricane and typhoon flying, six airplanes have gone down in 
storms, killing all aboard the six airplanes, a total of 53 men.

Five of these crashes were in Pacific Ocean typhoons.

The only airplane to crash in an Atlantic Basin hurricane was a Navy P2V 
Neptune that disappeared while flying in Hurricane Janet south of Jamaica on 
Sept. 22, 1955, killing all 11 men on board including nine crew members and two 
journalists.

The last fatal tropical cyclone crash was on October 12, 1974, when an air 
force WC-130 attached to the 54th Weather Reconnaissance Squadron on Guam 
crashed while flying in Typhoon Bess over the South China Sea. The U.S. Air 
Force no longer flies into typhoons.

Weather Underground has the stories of all tropical cyclone flights and the 
names of those killed.

Scary moments for the hurricane hunters

While no airplane has crashed during a hurricane flight since 1955, there have 
been some close calls and scary moments, including two that Dr. Bob Sheets and 
I describe in some detail in our 2001 book, "Hurricane Watch: Forecasting the 
Deadliest Storms on Earth."

Sheets, who was National Hurricane Center director from 1987 to 1995, was a 
research scientist and one of the 17 men aboard a U.S. Weather Bureau DC-6 
research airplanes flying into Hurricane Gladys over the Gulf of Mexico on the 
afternoon of October 16, 1968.

After about three hours of relatively smooth flying, just as everyone aboard 
was relaxing and taking off their seat belts as the airplane headed for home, 
"without warning, the DC-6 bucked upward with enough force to pin everyone to 
his seat, if he were in a seat," we write. "The upward acceleration hesitated, 
and Sheets quickly fastened his seat belt. The airplane accelerated upward 
again for a second or two before hitting a violent downdraft. All loose objects 
and many strapped-down objects as well - including heavy film magazines, oxygen 
bottles, and fire extinguishers - crashed against the top of the cabin. It was 
as if the aircraft had been turned upside down and shaken violently... The 
plane plunged almost 1,000 feet in four seconds.

"When the plane bounced against the bottom of the severe downdraft everything 
pinned against the ceiling crashed against the floor. Fortunately, because the 
top of the cabin was curved, all of the objects had been pushed to the highest 
point, so when they crashed to the floor most fell in the aisle rather than on 
people seated on each side."

One of the men on board was seriously injured and was rushed to the hospital as 
soon as the airplane landed back in Miami. He later received a disability 
retirement because of his injuries.

On Aug. 23, 1964 a Navy Super Constellation - the Navy version of three-tailed 
airplane with four huge piston engines that represented the height of airline 
glamor in the 1950s and '60s - was flying in Hurricane Cleo, a small but 
intense storm centered about 100 miles south of the western end of Puerto Rico, 
with its wingtip fuel tanks fully loaded.

While flying only 1,000 feet above the ocean in turbulence with the pilots 
struggling to keep control "a heavy jolt knocked out the radar. Now the crew 
was blind in the strongest part of the hurricane, which was heaving their 
airplane up and down without respite" with the wingtips flexing up and down. 
The pilots were not experienced hurricane fliers and had not burned the fuel in 
the wingtip tanks before reaching the hurricane as experienced pilots did.

During heavy turbulence those aboard saw "the left wingtip tank yanked 
completely off by the winds, leaving the outer end of the wing torn apart and 
spewing fuel. The weight of the fuel in the other wingtip tank now threw the 
aircraft radically off balance, and it spontaneously banked sharply to the 
right."

As the pilots struggled to control the airplane, "suddenly they felt a second 
jolt even stronger than the first one, followed by a wild plunge toward the 
sea. This turbulence ripped radios, toolboxes, and other gear from the straps 
that held them down. Men were thrown to the ceiling, one had the tip of a 
finger cut off when he grabbed a table edge, and another had an arm broken.

"Things looked bad, but now the crew caught an ironically good break when the 
right wingtip tank broke loose, helping to balance the airplane. The plane was 
still flying, but in questionable condition, just a few hundred feet above the 
ocean in the core of the hurricane, with the radar dead and with three crew 
members seriously injured."

Fortunately, the two U.S. Weather Bureau DC 6 airplanes, which were on their 
way to the hurricane heard the distress calls and helped lead the Navy 
airplane, with its broken navigation equipment, back to the Roosevelt Roads, 
Puerto Rico, Naval Air Station. After inspecting the airplane the Navy scraped 
it.

But, as Bob and I write, "the fact that the seriously disabled aircraft had 
made it home safely gave navy crews considerable confidence as they continued 
flying Super Constellations into hurricanes for another ten years."

In September of 1989, the WP-3 called "Kermit" entered the eye of Hurricane 
Hugo at 1,500 feet, expecting a weak hurricane. What they got was much more 
intense, causing severe turbulence and winds of over 200 mph. One of its four 
engines quit in the eyewall. This image shows the contents of the plane after 
being tossed around in turbulence. The red back is a life raft. (NOAA)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?
src=http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-
gang/files/2014/09/image4_650-194x300.jpg&w=194&h=300

Another close call involved one of NOAA's WP-3 with 16 people on board that 
encountered winds up to 185 mph and at least one 45 mph updraft and a few 20 
mph down-drafts on Sept. 15, 1989 when it flew into Hurricane Hugo, which was 
then east of Barbados.

The hurricane hunter team entered the eye wall of Hurricane Hugo expecting a 
weak hurricane, but encountered something much worse, as Hugo had gone into 
rapid intensification.

The extreme turbulence caused one of the airplane's four turboprop engines to 
fail. With one of the four engines shut down and another possibly in danger of 
failing, the pilots climbed through the eye in a tight circle, keeping the 
airplane away from the turbulence in the hurricanes eye wall.

After about an hour of crippled flying, the crew of an Air Force Reserve WC-130 
hurricane hunter arrived to locate a weak part of the eye wall that the damaged 
plane could exit through. Using the information relayed to them by the Air 
Force crew, the NOAA pilots were able to leave the the eye, and returned to 
Barbados.

Jeff Masters, who is now director of meteorology at Weather Underground, was 
flight meteorologist on the WP-3 that day and tells the complete, harrowing 
story.

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July:

Avalanche At Kedarnath Temple

Australia's Bitter Cold And Low Wind Leads To Power Concerns

Greenland's Record Summer Gains

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June:

Aussies Brace For Icy Weekend

South America's Snowiest Start To A Season In 30-Years
Record Cold Freezes The Sea In Tierra del Fuego
US Heatwave Failed To Deliver

Percentage of U.S. To Reach 90F by June 23 Among Lowest On Record

Avalanches Strand Dozens In Chile
Utah's Snowiest Two-Year Period On Record

Canada Hit With Extremes
Swiss Glacier Recovery
Ski Season Delays In S. America After Record Snow
Coldest Start To Winter In Decades For Parts Of Australia

Polar Blast Hits Australian Alps

Montana's Record Lows and Snows

Fresh Snowfall Hits Northwestern Peaks
Cold Records Fall In Montana And Alberta
Frosts Hit The Aussie Tropics

Queensland Freeze Breaks 32-Year Record
Record Cold British Columbia
New Study Identifies Antarctica's Record Winter Cold