Warning - Contains graphic content

If you love airplanes this might bring a tear to your eye and/or a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach.

We all mourn the loss of property and more importantly the human cost of the recent tornados in the southern US.

A side issue came to light in a video posted to AvWeb today and... well, let's just say it's sad. The video has no audio (drone footage with no voice-over but I don't think it's needed. The text details are here: https://www.avweb.com/eletter/archiv...t=email#232376


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5niDvCMcyFI

What a mess.That is horrible.

Mega insurance claims.

Anthin.

Several years ago I was part of team that flew supplies into Alabama for relief from a devastating EF5 tornado. Birmingham was a mess and we had to contend with tons of press always getting in our way so we used an airport called Rye Field in Smithville, MS to stage out of. On one particular run into Alabama bringing water and emergency supplies we were told that another tornado was imminent as we took off. When we came back from the run there was no airport and it looked like the little town of Smithville had been hit by an atomic bomb-not one brick on top of another in most parts. Only a water tower was still standing near one side of the town. Another EF 5 had hit. Plane and hanger parts were scattered for miles. To us it looked like there was no place to land because of all the debris but the people of the town helped us land by forming a runway with car lights at a nearby park as it was pitch black night. We did what we could and then headed to another airport in Biloxi, MS. I will never forget the people there. They were more concerned about our safety than what they just faced. God bless 'em!
Ted

Aircraft insurance is about to become an even bigger pain in the ass than it already is.

Ouch. That's a lot of loss. Shame hangars are so flimsy in general.

There's a HondaJet there... $4.x million right there, if it's not repairable.

Wow, what a story, txnetcop. Resilient folks.

HATE tornadoes.

We've known for a long time that God hates mobile home parks. Apparently He's not too fond of airports, either. :(

Every year I fear this happening during EAA with so many warbird, vintage, homebuilt and GA (some quite rare) aircraft gathered together. It was bad enough at Sun 'n Fun a few years ago.