The Hurricane Hunters from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are perhaps the ballsiest pilots on this terrifying and vengeful planet.
For the last few days they’ve been flying recon missions into Matthew—the category 3 hurricane that’s going to kill all of our children—to collect data, and post some incredible videos to Twitter. Unsurprisingly, the pilots described the flight as “turbulent.”
Very turbulent flight today into the eye of powerful Cat 4 #HurricaneMatthew on WP-3D Orion #NOAA43. Credit: CAPT Tim Gallagher/NOAA pic.twitter.com/8VJpKzs3mn
— NOAA Aircraft Operations Center (@NOAA_HurrHunter) October 7, 2016
Pilot Jim Van Fleet also posted some excerpts from his flight into the eye of Matthew yesterday. Although the planes NOAA uses are specially designed for this type of work, the amount of force on those propellers is still deeply concerning.
Flying through #Eye of #Matthew 5 times. Can see eye on Radar, finally see out window about 1:30 in. @NOAA_HurrHunter @CBSNews @spann #flwx pic.twitter.com/GiwvM653Mv
— James Van Fleet (@JamesVanFleet) October 6, 2016
Flying with @NOAA_HurrHunter in to #Hurricane #Matthew #Eye from the cockpit jump seat #NOAA43 #Florida #flwx More videos shortly. pic.twitter.com/06bZeS0srQ
— James Van Fleet (@JamesVanFleet) October 6, 2016
If you’re among the people refusing to evacuation, and this impassioned plea from The Weather Channel didn’t convince you, maybe these videos from inside the hurricane will.
