Hurricane Hunters experience intense flight through Milton

"Well... damn."

Those were the words of NOAA's Nick Underwood as he and his colleagues rode through the intense winds of Hurricane Milton.

The crew from NOAA's Aircraft Operations Center is one of the teams that flies through hurricanes to take weather observations that would otherwise be virtually impossible to obtain.

"Good God," Underwood exclaimed as their Lockheed WP-3D Orion N42RF aircraft violently bounced around in winds of at least 150 mph.

Hurricane hunters, as they are commonly referred to, fly through storms to record weather data. One of the most critical goals of the mission is to release dropsondes, which descend out of the plane and record data such as air pressure and wind speed. This data is then fed back to the National Hurricane Center where meteorologists use the data to update the storm's forecast path.

In a video recorded by Underwood and posted to X, the social media site formally referred to as Twitter, items in-flight can be seen falling off shelves and jumping out of pockets.

"Got to keep these pockets zipped," Underwood is heard saying after retrieving both his wallet and phone.