USAF Hurricane Hunters WC-130J Deploy to Curaçao for Tropical Storm Ernesto
What a way to end a week.
It is hurricane season here in the Caribbean, and that usually brings the NOAA and USAF “Hurricane hunters” to the region. During previous seasons, the USAF “weatherbirds” operated largely out of St-Croix and the NOAA aircraft flew out of multiple locations, including Barbados and Aruba.
This time, for Tropical storm Ernesto, the USAF WC-130Js of the 403rd Wing / 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron came to Curaçao. Two aircraft, 96-5302 and 98-5308 using the callsigns TEAL 82 and TEAL 83 respectively landed around dinner time. A third aircraft, 96-5301 using the callsign TEAL 81, initially flew to St-Croix and arrived in Curaçao after dark. I was not able to catch the arrival of that last aircraft so hopefully I can photograph it on another day as it has a different paint scheme than the other two.
(Click on an image to enlarge)
