55 Years Ago: Hurricane Janet

[abajan]

It was about this time on the morning of Thursday September 22, 1955 that Barbados felt the first winds of what was to become one of the most powerful hurricanes ever recorded in the Atlantic Basin: The infamous Janet. This is the only hurricane in which a reconnaissance aircraft and her crew perished.

Although Barbados has had close brushes with storms and hurricanes since 1955, Janet is the one most people think of whenever the word “hurricane” is uttered. I’m a bit pressed for time now but later I will see if I can post what happened both here and in Grenada.

For the time being, here are two links:
http://weather.unisys.com/hurricane/atl ... /track.gif
http://weather.unisys.com/hurricane/atl ... /track.dat

[Sanibel]

Janet, a real life-taker. The only hurricane to claim a hurricane hunter aircraft and crew:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Janet

[brunota2003]

The aircraft (Snowcloud Five) penetrated Janet at 700 feet...she was a major hurricane at the time, so it very well could of been a powerful downdraft slammed them into the water, or if they were flying by instruments affected by pressure (pressure altitude I suppose), it could of flown them straight into the water with the pressure drop, it is impossible to know what exactly happened.

The only Atlantic Hurricane Hunter flight to go down occurred on September 26, 1955. Snowcloud Five, a U.S. Navy P2V Neptune weather reconnaissance airplane flying out of Guantanamo, Cuba, was lost in Hurricane Janet, 300 miles southwest of Jamaica. Snowcloud Five was part of the Airborne Early Warning Squadron Four (VW-4), based at the Jacksonville, Florida Naval Air Station. Carrying a crew of nine and two reporters from the Toronto Daily Star, Snowcloud Five took off at 0630 local time, and performed its initial penetration into Janet at an altitude of 700 feet. At the time of the crash, Janet was a Category 4 hurricane with 145 mph winds. The aircraft sent back this transmission, then was never heard from again:

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.

God Bless

The crew members lost on the mission were:

Lt. Cmdr. Grover B. Windham Jr. of Jacksonville, FL, Plane Commander
LTjg Thomas R. Morgan of Orange Park, FL, Navigator
LTjg George W. Herlong of Yukon, FL, Co-Pilot
Aviation Electronics Technician Second Class Julius J. Mann, 22, of Canton, Ohio
LTjg Thomas L. Greaney, 26, of Jacksonville, FL, Navigator
Aviation Mechanic First Class J. P. Windham, Jr., 32 of Jacksonville, FL
Airman Kenneth L. Klegg, 22, of Cranston, RI
Aviation Electronics Man First Class Joseph F. Combs of Forest Park, NY
Aerologist William A. Buck, of Jacksonville, FL
Toronto Daily Star Reporter Alfred O. Tate
Toronto Daily Star Photographer Douglas Cronk

http://www.wunderground.com/hurricane/hunter4.asp

The book is a good read, I will vouch for that! A lot of info intertwined with the story.

[HurricaneBill]

This link has photos and information on the impact of Janet on Corozal, Belize. There's another link at the bottom that has accounts from survivors.

http://www.corozal.com/history/janet

[HUC]

Remember that hurricane,becaused it was predicted to pass over Martinica, and here in Guadeloupe my father and mother was talking about ( i was 8 years old!)..and finally passed just south of Grenada intensifying rapidly...Cozumel wasn after Grenada severly hit by a terrific hurricane.