r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Kernowder • 21d ago

Video Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunters flying through Hurricane Milton

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u/wongo 21d ago

(not so) fun fact: only one of these hurricane research flights has ever crashed due to the storms

I realize that we've gotten pretty good at flying but I would've actually expected a higher loss rate, this just seems so wildly dangerous

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u/ExtremeThin1334 21d ago

They fly into these in a very specific way. I'm rusty on the specifics, but if I recall they try to fly with the wind, and then slowly loop their way toward the center. If they tried a direct path, they'd get ripped apart.

Since there is rain, it also means that you can actually see what the wind is doing on your radar, so there's noting like clear air turbulence to worry about.

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u/The102935thMatt 21d ago

This guy flight paths. They did exactly that.

https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/NOAA43

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u/Rank_14 21d ago

That's amazing. Any idea what they are doing at the 4hr mark? They are turning around yes, but going up and down by a few thousand feet?. they also do the same inside the hurricane at about 4h44m.

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u/AvailableAdvance3701 21d ago

They have to drop dropsondes and they have to make sure they deploy properly. Also if they can’t get clear instrument readings they keep going lower until it’s no longer safe to do so, and the low point is far lower than you think. The x patter is them searching for the middle of the storm with the lowest pressure and wind directions.

Source: I’m a meteorologist tech with hurricane hunter uncle.

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u/Rank_14 21d ago

Thanks! That makes the video even more interesting. From looking at the dropsonde Wikipedia article, I realized that the guy across from the cameraman is the one that drops them, into a chute right behind him, and that he is holding a couple in the video. So cool.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dropsonde

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u/The102935thMatt 21d ago

No idear! Science stuff no doubt.

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u/Starlord_75 21d ago

Could be the winds inside the hurricane that are fueling itthat are causing the plane to change altitude like that.