60 Years Ago, the Only Hurricane Hunter Plane to Go Down in an Atlantic Basin Storm Crashed in Hurricane Janet

It has been 60 years since the first and only Hurricane Hunter plane crash in the Atlantic Basin, brought down by a tropical system it was investigating.

On Sept. 26, 1955, Hurricane Janet continued to strengthen, already a major hurricane, NOAA's Hurricane Research Division said. As the storm moved west through the Caribbean that morning, the U.S. Navy sent a reconnaissance mission into the storm to study its strength. Snowcloud Five left from Guantanamo Bay Naval Base and never returned.

"The plane's last transmission was from an altitude of 700 feet. Flight-level winds at the time were only 52 mph," said weather.com meteorologist Jon Erdman. "It is unthinkable today to fly a piloted reconnaissance mission that low into what was, at the time, a Category 4 hurricane."

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This was the final transmission from the plane, via Weather Underground, sent shortly before it flew into the storm:

NAVY RECONNAISSANCE FLIGHT 5U93, OBSERVATION NUMBER FIVE, AT 1330 GMT (8:30AM EST), MONDAY, LOCATED AT LATITUDE 15.4 DEGREES N, LONGITUDE 78.2 DEGREES W. OBLIQUE AND HORIZONTAL VISIBILITY 3-10 MILES, ALTITUDE 700 FEET, FLIGHT WIND 050 DEGREES (NE) 45 KNOTS (52 MPH). PRESENT WEATHER LIGHT INTERMITTENT SHOWERS, PAST WEATHER SAME, OVERCAST AND SOME SCUD BELOW, SURFACE PRESSURE 1,003 MILLIBARS (29.62 INCHES), SURFACE WINDS 050 DEGREES (NE), 45 KNOTS (52 MPH). BEGINNING PENETRATION.

Those who perished aboard Snowcloud Five, according to NOAA:

• Lt. Cmdr. Grover B. Windham Jr. of Jacksonville, Florida, Aircraft Commander
• LTJG Thomas R. Morgan of Orange Park, Florida, Navigator
• LTJG George W. Herlong of Yukon, Florida, Co-pilot
• Aviation Electronics Technician Second Class Julius J. Mann, 22, of Canton, Ohio
• LTJG Thomas L. Greaney, 26, of Jacksonville, Florida, Navigator
• Aviation Mechanic First Class J. P. Windham, Jr., 32 of Jacksonville, Florida (no relation to pilot)
• Airman Kenneth L. Klegg, 22, of Cranston, Rhode Island
• Aviation Electronics Man First Class Joseph F. Combs of Forest Park, New York
• LTJG William A. Buck, of Jacksonville, Florida, Aerologist
• Toronto Daily Star Reporter Alfred O. Tate
• Toronto Daily Star Photographer Douglas Cronk

Buzz Bernard, a retired senior meteorologist from The Weather Channel, noted Janet made landfall along Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula packing winds as high as 175 mph. Although meteorology was a far less refined science 60 years ago, Janet's wind speeds may have hit 200 mph, Bernard added.

There have been other losses and close calls. In the Pacific, the Air Force has lost three aircraft and 25 crewmen in typhoons since reconnaissance flights began in 1943. Thirty-four years after the Snowcloud Five crash, Dr. Jeff Masters, Director of Meteorology at Weather Underground, flew into Hugo with the Hurricane Hunters as they studied the infamous Atlantic Basin storm in September 1989. As he later wrote, the plane was nearly brought down by the massive hurricane – a harrowing experience for all aboard.

But despite the tragedies, Hurricane Hunter missions are generally a safe way to study tropical systems in the 21st century, Erdman also said. Technology like instrumented dropsondes, which can be dropped into the eye of the storm to study its characteristics, and the stepped-frequency microwave radiometer on the plane's wing, allows scientists to get the readings they need while flying 5,000 to 10,000 feet above the ground.

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