Tornado X 4

[Uncle Jackson]

Sunday, I was scheduled to fly back from the BCCA meeting in St. Louis thru Chicago to Pittsburgh. On the car rental shuttle, a guy mentioned that there may be tornadoes. I scoffed at that. I was wrong. On the flight to Chicago the weather to the east looked bad. When we left Chicago the pilot said there would be no service on the flight (analogous to the cook on the Edmund Fitzgerald) because of the expected turbulence. We were flying at 39000 feet, about as high as a plane ever flies, when we hit a funnel cloud (the top of a tornado). We fell an estimated 4000 feet instantaneously. From my conversation with the pilot later, he said he was fighting just to keep the flight level. All the computerized controls failed as they are not designed for that event. We made an emergency landing in Detroit. Most of us were in shock.

4 hours later, they put us on another plane headed for Pittsburgh. Of course we still had to go thru the same storm. Some turbulence but they took twice the normal time to avoid another traumatic event. After landing, I had a 2.5 hour drive home to Erie. Of course, the same storm was now over that route. Nothing serious, but had to pull over twice.

After I landed, I called my wife who was just returning home when her phone went crazy with a tornado warning. She said there was lots of flooding and got home, grabbed the pets and headed to the basement. She reported no damage after the storm passed.

Same storm four times.

Why this is relevant here is that we did suffer some damage. There was some minor flooding in the basement. 3 hours of wet-vac later and I was done - I couldn’t take anymore.

Today, we moved 2000 cans, took down the shelves, pulled up the carpet moved a lot of other stuffed stored in the area and started to take down the paneling. Not as bad as it could have been.

Next time I have to go to St. Louis, I am going to drive.

[idigrust]

Glad you are OK, 4000ft is quite the drop ! Seat belt probably left a mark !

[willssoda]

I have experienced a drop like you described and it sucks. I think I would have driven from Detroit. Lol. Glad your ok.

[Conehead]

Wow Jerry!

Glad you and your wife are ok.

Sounds like you ended up pretty lucky after all that.

Jim

[beerhunter14]

Glad you are ok. Just not long ago, We had a early Gales of November . October 27 dealing with a 60 mph wind all day long!!!!

[rick78]

Those Airbus A319's can take a beating. We got a network alert for the flight. glad all turned out well....with flight and cans...

[kruegerbock]

Jerry,

Glad to hear that you made it home. What time did you leave STL?

I was scheduled to leave at 5:00 PM, but was able to change it to 2:15 PM. The plane came in from Chicago, and right about when they were getting to the gate, it got ominously dark and the skies just opened up. The airport made an announcement telling people to stay away from the windows. We had hail, wind etc, and the radar had it as red. A few miles west on the radar, it was purple and white, so I can't imagine what that was like.

They wouldn't allow us to board the plane during the height of the storm. We were on one of those ERJ-170s, so not even a full sized plane. All told the plane was about an hour and a half late, as we were delayed taking off and we flew a much longer route around the weather. I had it much easier than you though.

[foreigncanman]

Sounds terrifying. Glad everything is Ok . Sure makes you appreciate being on the ground!!

[Uncle Jackson]

Al, I was scheduled to be on a 9:30 flight, but jumped on the 8:00 am instead. Also was on an earlier flight from Chicago. I guess no good deed goes unpunished.

The pilot also said there were planes immediately behind us and they scattered like rats when he declared the emergency.

[pinnacle-project]

Wow, quite a story. I'm glad you got home okay.