Industry News
173 passengers, plus flight crew, on Delta flight 302 flew straight through category 5 Hurricane Irma like a boss on Wednesday afternoon.
Delta flight 302 was the last commercial flight to leave San Juan airport in Puerto Rico before the airport shut down due to Hurricane Irma.
The flight flew in between bands of 185mph wind blowing Hurricane Irma as shown in the image above.
Flight 302 safely arrived in New York’s JFK airport three and half hours after take off.
The plane carrying these passengers was a Boeing 737-900 ER.
Apparently, Delta flight 302 used their team on the ground and their on-board radar to avoid the nastiest parts of the hurricanes rain and wind and only experienced a bumpy ride for about 15 minutes.
“Our meteorology team is the best in the business. They took a hard look at the weather data and the track of the storm and worked with the flight crew and dispatcher to agree it was safe to operate the flight. And our flight and ground crews were incredible in their effort to turn the aircraft quickly and safely so the flight could depart well before the hurricane threat.” – Delta’s Erik Snell
At least two other flights turned around before landing in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Delta flight 302 reported only being on the ground in San Juan for 40 minutes before taking off again.
NOAA’s Kermit airplane purposely flew right through Irma and into her eye yesterday. See video below:
“Although most of our Hurricane #Irma flight videos display the unique turbulence and rain encountered by Kermit’s (#NOAA42) crews, we thought you might enjoy this video showing a different experience. Watch as Kermit and crew enter the eye of Irma!
Credit: Nick Underwood, NOAA”
