BUCK-WILLIAM

HURRICANE  JANET  FATALITY

Although intentionally flying into a hurricane has been successfully accomplished many times, a Navy hurricane hunter flight was unfortunately lost on September 26, 1955, when it flew into Hurricane Janet in the Caribbean.  Nine Navy flight crewmen and two Canadian newspaper reporters were lost.  Unfortunately, LTJG William A. Buck, the Aerologist on the flight, was one of the fatalities.

Hurricane Janet was first observed by commercial aircraft as it formed east of Barbados on September 21.  Gradually the winds intensified and a hurricane hunter P2V-3W Neptune, attached to Airborne Early Warning Squadron Four (VW-4) in Jacksonville, Florida, was dispatched to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, with the assignment to fly into the eye of the hurricane and report observations.  At 6:20am on September 26, the plane designated Snowcloud Five, departed Guantanamo to fly south some three-hundred miles to intercept Janet south of Jamaica.  At 8:30am, Snowcloud Five reported by radio that it was at an altitude of 700-feet beginning to make their first inbound leg into Janet.  Several garbled broadcasts were later heard, but nothing distinguishable could be heard and nothing to indicate any trouble was received.  In this era, radio transmissions from hurricane hunters often experienced interference from static caused by the heavy rainfall in the storm’s core.  By 11:30am the flight was deemed overdue as anticipated radio transmissions were not being received.  Attempts to contact the plane by radio were fruitless and rescue operations were begun.  Despite extensive efforts over the next days, no evidence of the aircraft nor its crew were ever found. 

Hurricane Janet was the most powerful tropical cyclone of the 1955 Atlantic hurricane season and one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes on record as it left 1,023 known fatalities and damage of $65.8 million.  It was the first Category 5 named storm to have its name permanently retired.  Although three hurricane hunter flights are known to have been lost in the Pacific, Snowcloud Five is the only reconnaissance flight into an Atlantic hurricane ever lost.  In the February 2003 issue of the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society an article speculated about the cause of the accident: "The enlisted aerographer's mate was left behind that day in order to accommodate the Canadian reporters. This key crew member was normally responsible for keeping the pilots aware of altitude by calling out readings from the only radar altimeter on board, located at the aerologist's station.  Without him, the aerologist, LTJG William Buck, had to do two demanding jobs.  He had to simultaneously read the bouncing, flickering altimeter and peer down from his Plexiglas bubble in the nose to discern the wind from streaks of foam on the sea.  It is easy to imagine how he might have lost control of the situation as he struggled to keep the airplane safely above the waves and flying perpendicular to the wind towards the eye."

LTJG William A. Buck was survived by his wife who was living in Jacksonville, Florida.

Submitted by CDR Roy A. Mosteller, USNR (Ret)