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Photo Archive Home • VDEM Facilities • Public Education and Outreach • Response and Recovery • Training and Exercises
"Miss Piggy," one of NOAA's two Hurricane Hunter P-3 aircraft, landed at Newport News-Williamsburg International Airport May 8 to help kick off an awareness campaign for the 2003 hurricane season.
The propeller-driven aircraft is equipped to fly into the center of hurricanes to assess the storm and collect data for the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Fla. The Hampton Roads Emergency Management Committee arranged for the aircraft to make its first stop in Tidewater in six years.
A group of nearly two-dozen fourth-graders from nearby Portsmouth got to see the plane up close and quizzed the airplane crew about the 27-year-old veteran storm craft, which normally flies hurricane missions at about 5,000-foot altitude. Decals on the exterior detail the plane's many missions.
During a hurricane fly-over, more than half the 18 people on board may be meteorologists. The flight can be so rough that everyone needs to be firmly belted into their seats to avoid serious injury. During some flights, hailstones have damaged the craft.
Mayor Joe Frank of Newport News said the hurricane hunter plane is a powerful symbol to focus the public's attention on the importance of being prepared. "We want to educate people so that when the direction comes to evacuate, they take it seriously," he said.
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Photos by Bob Lambert, VDEM