It's interesting that a commercial pilot would buy in to the "risk" bent of this article. Are you an inexperienced/new pilot? I flew into and out of the outer bands of Harvey last month. That portion of the system is no different than any storm. Nor is flying between the bands. That gap is huge compared to a little tiny airplane. No "adrenaline" or "balls" were involved here. Just competence. I'm sure the pilots have had far more harrowing experiences flying back and forth across the US in the summer and the departing passengers were in no danger.

Now i wonder who in Delta management were willing to put the plane, never mind the crew, on the line for this flight.

It if was totaled by the hurricane it would not have looked good on the company books.

Very good question. Whether Im stockholder or shareholder in this position I want to know why and why is risking hundreds of millions of dollars in my rolling stock not to mention lost lives and PR disaster.

Honestly there is NO reasonable explanation. But wait few days to find out there was some high ranking company member or CEO/C level exec or his/her family stuck over there and thats why they send a plane.

And no - if it wouldnt take off that minute, you are talking about wreck taken off the books.

The optimist in me would like to believe that Delta took this risk, because they considered their humanitarian mission more important that the mechanical integrity of one plane. I would encourage each and every company I own stocks in, to prioritize their goals similarly.

Every situation is going to look different. But if I found out a company I was invested in had an opportunity to save lives at a reasonable risk[1] and chose not to due to concerns about whiny shareholders and PR, I'd dump them and write comments about their shitty morals on message boards.

[1] Whatever that means. And I have no personal opinion about the risk involved in what Delta did, because I'm not qualified to form one.

Edited to add: it is nice to be able to applaud an airline for a change. Yay, Delta.

Given that lives were not in fact at significant risk, it's conceivable to me that they considered the amount of free publicity this would likely get. Given that, and the relatively small chance of serious damage or loss of the plane, and it could be a decision with positive financial expected value.

Plus, of course, there is the humanitarian benefit.

As explained by omegant in the post above, lives were not at risk here.

The risk was to the aircraft: if it had been delayed on the ground at SJU for any reason, it might not have be able to depart before the storm hit and would likely have suffered severe damage.

Normally I would think that

> hundreds of millions of dollars in my rolling stock

would refer to the aircraft ... except that's a nearly 1-order-of-magnitude overestimate of it's value (a single $100M, not multiple).

Not sure if there were really any passengers disembarking in San Juan. I would guess that it was pretty much an empty flight flying in.

What a heroic effort! Salute to the entire team!

There were 30 people on the flight to San Juan.

Each one of them must be quite a story. Being in San Juan despite the danger must have been very important for most, and they almost were unable to make it.

Airfare was cheap to make it an attractive mileage run.

But MQDs.

Get that waived with the spend on the credit card.

Perhaps disaster response folks pre-positioning. Red Cross, etc.

Or people rejoining elderly relatives or other dependents...

Honestly wondered if Jim Cantore was on that plane.

Heh, great comment. I wrote The Weather Channel a letter (yes, on paper, sent by mail) years ago specifically in appreciation of Jim's demonstrable love of severe weather. He is a guy who clearly loves his work.

This comment is a great example of why I read the comments on this site. Thanks for the answer. It provided some context I'd been wondering about.

One often neglected risk is the risk to the ramp crew from lightning. For a quick turn around in the middle of a storm like this, someone needs to neglect their own personal safety. Many times lighting is less risky to the plane but even before the storms roll in the lighting picks up.

Hurricanes tend to have far less lightning than everyday storm fronts.

Thank you for the details from a Pilot's point of view. I was watching this flight play out live and it was certainly a nail biter. I couldn't believe they were going to land let alone take off.

Amazing. Anyone have a video of the flight path with radar?

Is it possible to show the playback of the flight with weather?

seems various weather layers are included in the higher tiers of payment packages (the business package in particular).

Not sure if they are also part of recorded flights though.

Pictures of the departure with weather radar.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/article17...

Thank you for the insightful explanation!

Stupid question: what about flying above the hurricane on the way back ? Possible ?

This is exactly what you'd do in a Concorde, U-2, SR-71, F-15, or F-22. All of these can get to the required FL600, at 60000 feet.

The F-15 and F-22 have an extra bonus. They can climb straight up through the eye. The U-2 could probably manage a spiral climb within the eye.

Depends how tall the storm is. Planes engines breathe air, and there is less air the higher you go, so there's a limit to how high you can go; roughly 10km for commerical jets (actually it's a factor of altitude and speed; at high altitude, you need to go at least a certain speed to get enough air into the engines, but if you go too fast the plane breaks apart). I think big storms are about 10km tall.

It's actually less about the engines and more about the wings. As altitude increases, the air becomes thinner. That means that wings stall speed increases. At the same time, as the air becomes thinner, the speed of sound decreases - and breaking the sound barrier will break your plane. As you go higher, the stall speed and the speed of sound converge.

The point where they meet is called "coffin corner". It is really not a nice place to be: If you are in coffin corner, if you try to descend, you risk speeding up and breaking the plane. If you try to slow down, you risk stalling - although it is possible to recover from a stall, you cannot recover without speeding up.

It is generally advisable stop climbing before you box yourself in like that.

What would a pilot do in a situation like that?

Descend very gently.

Did you fly Atlanta - Buenos Aires? I flew on Wednesday 6th. Were you my pilot? :)