A Spirit Airlines plane appears to have flown through Hurricane Erin this week when the hurricane was a Category 4 storm with winds well over 100 mph, according to a flight path shared on social media.
Spirit Airlines told Newsweek in a statement that the flight operated normally and no injuries were reported.
“Safety is always our top priority,” the statement said. “In this case, our Pilots followed procedures and Air Traffic Control (ATC) instructions while en route to San Juan (SJU). Our Operations Control Center closely tracks weather systems and works with our Pilots and ATC to determine flight paths that safely navigate around or above adverse weather conditions.”
Why It Matters
Spirit has long been grappling with declining demand and related financial strains, which led to it filing for bankruptcy in November. While the airline emerged from the Chapter 11 process in March, the company recently warned that it could soon go out of business.
As of Wednesday morning, Hurricane Erin was a down to a Category 2 storm with maximum sustained winds of 100 mph.
What To Know
On Monday, a Spirit Airlines flight path shared on social media by Flightradar24, a live flight tracker, showed a plane flying through the storm.
“Did Spirit take up the Hurricane Hunter mission?” Flightradar24 posted on X.
The plane, Spirit Airlines flight NK2298, appears to take a meandering flight through the storm’s outer bands before turning south. The Airbus A320-271N left Philadelphia at 1:34 p.m. and was scheduled to arrive in San Juan, Puerto Rico, at 5:15 p.m.
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However, flight data from FlightAware, another flight tracker, shows the flight skirting the outer bands of Erin rather than going through it.
In the Flightradar24 data, it’s unclear if the plane was flying above the storm. Commercial pilots most often choose a path that takes the plane around a hurricane, pilot Phil McCain wrote in a 2023 article for travel guide site Travelness.
Flying above a hurricane is possible, McCain wrote, but pilots typically avoid this path, as hurricanes can reach 50,000 feet in altitude, which is higher than most planes fly.
“Airplanes can fly over, around, or even into hurricanes,” McCain wrote. “However, passenger aircraft typically steer clear of powerful storms.”
Regardless of its exact path, Spirit arrived safely in San Juan on Monday, although it was 52 minutes behind schedule. On Wednesday, the same Spirit Airlines flight from Philadelphia to San Juan opted for a path that went around Hurricane Erin, according to flight data from FlightAware.
What People Are Saying
Meteorologist Max Velocity, on X, with a crying-face emoji: “Spirit went through Hurricane Erin.”
Storm chaser Colin McCarthy, on X: “A Spirit Airlines plane just did its best impression of the Hurricane Hunters, flying through the outer bands of Category 4 Hurricane Erin in the Atlantic.”
Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor John Hansman told Newsweek: “Flying through a hurricane at altitude is not particularly hazardous, particularly if you are above the tops of the clouds and the turbulent layer. The winds are not a problem at altitude and it is common for aircraft to fly in high winds aloft in the jet stream. It is more hazardous to land or take off in those conditions where there are high winds and rain.”
What Happens Next
Hurricane Erin is still churning in the Atlantic and is likely to be the cause of some rerouted flights on Wednesday as pilots avoid the storm.