Delta Pilot Flies Through Hurricane Irma To Get Last Commercial Flight Out Of San Juan

[mahatmakanejeeves]

We don't have an Aviation Forum, so I guess I'll put this here. I can think of a few DUers who will like this.

The article has oodles of graphics, but I'll leave those out for bandwidth considerations.

Delta Pilot Flies Through Hurricane Irma To Get Last Commercial Flight Out Of San Juan

BY REBECCA FISHBEIN IN ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT ON SEP 7, 2017 3:00 PM

While Hurricane Irma wreaked havoc in the Caribbean, one brave (crazy?) Delta pilot flew right through Irma's outer band so he could pick passengers up in San Juan, Puerto Rico and get them out before the brunt of the storm hit.
....

Flight 431 was scheduled to head from John F. Kennedy Airport to San Juan at 8 a.m. on Wednesday, just as the storm swirled in the Caribbean. There were only about 30 people on the flight down, but after refueling for only 50 minutes, the flight (now Flight 302) got 173 people onboard (plus the crew) and flew back to New York through the storm. It was pretty nuts to watch through radar:

Link to tweet

{snip the rest, to conserve bandwidth}

On the subject of aviation, today is the anniversary of this crash, which was huge puzzler:

USAir Flight 427

[Major Nikon]

1. Not as big of a deal as you might think

The USAF hurricane hunter aircraft fly right through the eye at relatively low altitudes. Passengers tend to freak out if it gets more than a little bumpy, but transport category aircraft can take considerably more.

33019G30KT is a normal day here in Texas during certain times of the year.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. I did not know that. Thanks. I figure you'd be on top of this. NT