Ha ha! Ok well here is an excerpt from
Capt Tom Bunn, retired airline captain with 37 years of flying and a licensed therapist who is helping people deal with their fear of flying.
- Turbulence is not a threat to an airliner.
- Nor is a thunderstorm, unless landing and the thunderstorm is right over the end of the runway where downward moving air from the storm could push the plane down to the ground before reaching the runway.
Tthe “hurricane Hunters Association web site at
Hurricane Hunters Association where you can see stories and videos of planes - planes built just as airliners are built - that have been flying into the eye of hurricanes for weather reconnaissance since 1944 AND HAVE YET TO LOSE AN AIRPLANE.
And “thank you, thank you, thank you,” to Zac Flaming (working toward a PhD in meteorology) who writes (correctly) “Actually, at typical commercial airliner flight levels the winds in a hurricane are remarkably calm. . . . So, the answer is o, it is’t dangerous to fly over a hurricane at all.”
And also to David Tussey (ex-Navy pilot) who writes, “Not really. Not even all that challenging to fly into a hurricane.”
And Ed Ward (master of science) who writes “ . . . minimal turbulence.”
Based in New York with Pan Am, I flew from New York to San Juan, Santo Domingo, Jamaica, Antigua, Barbados, Caracas, Rio, and B.A. I took the first 747 ever into St. Maarten, the airport where you see videos like this.
We flew those routes in hurricane season and out. When there was a hurricane on the route, rarely was it too high to fly over.
Hurricanes, like tornadoes have high velocity winds at the surface, but the higher you fly above the surface, the less disturbance. Usually, there is nothing going on at high altitude over a hurricane. I’ve flow directly over hurricanes and looked down at the eye, in perfectly smooth air with the seat belt off and the flight attendants serving passengers.
To illustrate the view REAL airline pilots have about turbulence, consider this true story. On a flight from New York to Tokyo, I was Captain John Bangma’s copilot. On a thirteen hour flight, there is plenty of time to talk, and John, noting I was now doing fear of flying courses, asked, “What are people afraid of anyway?” Take a look at that questions. He uses the term “anyway” which, to my hearing, meant he could see no reason whatsoever for people to be afraid to fly.
So, I answered him, “Turbulence.” John looked at me like I had lost my mind. “Turbulence?” he said. “Yes, John, they are afraid of turbulence.” With his incredulity mounting, he said, “Why?” He simply couldn’t believe his ears. It was beyond his ability to take it in that anyone would be afraid of turbulence. He regarded that as beyond belief because, as a REAL pilot, he knew turbulence was nothing to be afraid of.
Finally, when he recovered, he said, “I can fix that.” Now, I was getting incredulous, because nothing I had been able to tell fearful fliers about turbulence seemed to end their fear of it.
He said,”Yes. Tell them this. When I came to work for Pan Am, being the most junior pilot on the seniority list, I got assigned the flights nobody else wanted. We were flying DC-6s. And what I was assigned to fly was cargo flights from Miami down through Central America to South America. We did these flights in the middle of the night. At the altitude the DC-6s flew, we were right in the middle of the weather. Unlike with jets, we couldn’t fly above the weather, so we couldn’t see the thunderstorms poking up. And, Pan Am, in its wisdom, saw no reason to put a radar scope on a cargo plane. So, the cargo was tied down. We had on our seat belts and our shoulder harness. The plane was on autopilot. So since we couldn’t see where the thunderstorms were, we just flew straight ahead. Central America has the worst thunderstorms in the world. And so when we hit one, the plane would buck, and snort, and moan, and groan. Really, I didn’t know if the plane would take it. But, I looked at the captain and he was OK with it. So, I figured he knew it was OK. I never got to the point that I liked it, but I got to the point that I realized the plane could take anything.”
“Pan Am flew one southbound and one northbound through there every night. We did it for years, and we never lost a plane. So, tell your fear of flying people that. That will fix them.” ------------
Right now we are praying for everyone's safety until then. 
I am sure that I didn't mis it .
