The Hurricane Hunters' only tragedy: Remembering the loss of Stormcloud Five 70 years ago
Just over 70 years ago, the only Hurricane Hunter plane to go down in the Atlantic basin crashed during Hurricane Janet.
Inside the 'flying laboratory' used by NOAA's Hurricane Hunters
Inside the ‘flying laboratory’ used by NOAA’s Hurricane Hunters.
Have you ever wondered what it's like in the eye of a hurricane? It's another day on the job if you ask the aviation specialists commonly known as Hurricane Hunters.
Hurricane Hunters fly turboprop planes through the worst weather on the planet to gather valuable data that allows meteorologists at the National Hurricane Center to more accurately forecast brewing storms.
Hurricane Hunters have been very active this week as Tropical Storm Melissa brews in the central Caribbean and forecasters predict it will intensify into a major hurricane by next week.
Watch: Hurricane Hunters fly into Hurricane Gabrielle’s eye
A video shared by NOAA’s Hurricane Hunters shows crews flying into the eye of Hurricane Gabrielle over the Atlantic Ocean on Sept. 22, 2025.
Across two agencies, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Air Force, the mission of the Hurricane Hunters is a turbulent battle against the harshest weather conditions Earth has to offer.
The US Air Force's 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, a component of the 403rd Wing located at Kessler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi, routinely performs flying weather reconnaissance missions, whether it's a sunny day with clear skies or a brewing major hurricane.
Airmen prepare a WC-130J Hercules for a mission to collect data, on St. Croix, Virgin Islands. Known as the 'Hurricane Hunters,' the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron mission is to provide surveillance of tropical storms and hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico and the central Pacific Ocean for the National Hurricane Center in Miami.
(HUM Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images / Getty Images)
To handle the harsh conditions, the Air Force Hurricane Hunters fly in WC-130J aircraft equipped with meteorological data-gathering instruments. The "Super Hercules" aircraft carries a crew of five; the pilot, co-pilot, the navigator, the flight meteorologist and the weather reconnaissance load master.
NOAA's Hurricane Hunter trio of Muppet-inspired airplane names operate under similar functions, flying into the worst of the worst to gather data aboard the agency's "high-flying laboratories."
Wild Ride: NOAA Hurricane Hunters flying inside Hurricane Milton
NOAA's Hurricane Hunter aircraft flew 19 missions during Hurricane Milton over nearly 100 hours of flight time. This NOAA video shows some mission highlights as the crews collected critical forecasting data.
HOW ‘KERMIT’, ‘MISS PIGGY’ AND ‘GONZO’ HUNT DOWN HURRICANES
Hurricane Hunters have a job that many might consider a death wish, as flying into the eye of the storm isn't for the faint of heart. The high-flying meteorological stations and their operators provide an essential service – collecting data to help forecasters make accurate predictions during a hurricane based on the data collected to further enhance forecast models and understand storm processes and formations.
NOAA Hurricane Hunter aircraft
(NOAA)
In the decades since their inception, the evolution of Hurricane Hunters has coincided with technological advancements in both meteorology and aviation. The high-tech, flying data-collecting metrological machines that pierce the fiercest storms the Atlantic has to offer have a proven track record jostling major hurricanes.
In October 2024, NOAA Hurricane Hunters captured what it was like inside the plane as it pierced the eyewall of Category 5 Hurricane Milton, as turbulence scatters equipment and crew members.
Get a front row seat into the turbulent eye of Hurricane Milton
NOAA's Hurricane Hunters had a very bumpy ride piercing the eyewall of Category 5 Hurricane Milton.
Tragic loss of Navy Hurricane Hunter 70 years ago
Despite flying thousands of missions into nature's greatest monsters, the Hurricane Hunters' safety record is sparkling. But in the eye of the storm, many things can conceivably go wrong.
This past September marked 70 years since a Navy Hurricane Hunter plane carried out a reconnaissance of Hurricane Janet and did not return home.
On Sept. 26, 1955, a crew of nine Americans along with two Canadian news reporters left Guatanamo Naval Air Station aboard a Neptune P2V aircraft, designated Stormcloud Five, and embarked on a journey to intercept a rapidly intensifying Hurricane Janet some 300 miles to the South, according to NOAA.
PHOTO GALLERY: THE WORST 25 HURRICANES OVER THE LAST 25 YEARS
Janet was initially observed as a weak tropical disturbance by commercial airline pilots five days earlier on Sept. 21 in the Atlantic Ocean, approximately 280 miles east of the Lesser Antilles. The eye of the hurricane passed south of the island of Barbados the next day as an "immature hurricane", registering 38 fatalities, according to the Hurricanes of 1955 edition of the Monthly Weather Review. The following day, the storm passed by Grenada and resulting in another 122 fatalities.
Over the course of 3 days, Hurricane Janet rapidly intensified into a severe hurricane, with winds estimated up to 160 miles per hour with a minimum pressure of 995 mb, accompanied by thunderstorms and frequent lightning strikes, as observed by a reconnaissance flight the night of Sept. 25.
A Neptune PV-2 in 1953 similar to the Hurricane Hunter lost in 1955 during Hurricane Janet.
(U.S. Navy / FOX Weather)
On the morning of Sept. 26, the crew led by Lt. Cmdr. Grover B. Windham Jr. reported at 8:30 a.m. that the crew was about to begin penetration of the main core of Hurricane Janet in the Caribbean Sea, southeast of Jamaica.
No further report was received by the plane. The flight remains the only reconnaissance flight into an Atlantic hurricane ever lost.
The following day, Hurricane Janet hit Swan Island, where a U.S. Weather Bureau Station was wrecked by the major hurricane, which at its peak value packed estimated winds of 175 mph. In the end, Hurricane Janet killed over a thousand and caused widespread damage in the Caribbean, totaling over $60 million in damage.