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KFFZ Tornado Damage Last Night

K

kaminochikara

Member
A tornado hit Mesa Arizona last night the airport was square in its path and the damage is significant. Some hangers that have stood since WWII are pretty much demolished. These photos are pretty crazy.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/4XXazy4MHiYNaLWU8

I've been on a tie down and luckily got into a hanger with my RV-7 two months ago and the hanger door stayed on during the storm. There were some dents in my hanger and a small section of the roof blew off so I got a solid amount of water in the hanger, but other than that my plane was untouched. The door of the hanger across from me got blown off.
 
Very sad seeing planes all mangled.
Were the flipped over aircraft even tied down? Not a single one looks like there is any piece of rope.
 
WOW!! I live over in Peoria, and all we got was a bunch of wind and rain. I heard the thunder and saw the lightning, so I went outside to see the rain drenching everything. I didn't even know that AZ got tornadoes! I'm glad that your RV wasn't damaged, but so sorry for those who lost hangars and planes. :(

Edit: I searched the web for yesterday's weather reports, and they don't mention any twisters, just "gusty storms." We had a "straight-line wind event" where we live a few years ago, and it took out a swath of old, large trees through the village. Might not have been a tornado, but it sure did the damage of one!
 
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Micro burst

Lots of damage including many warbirds. Hangars and planes inside them destroyed.

No tornado. Confirmed micro burst. Straight line winds were 70mph. Not good.
 
Glads to hear your plane escaped it but very sad to see the destruction. It doesn't really look like tornado damage. A tornado wouldn't flip one plane and leave the 2 beside it sitting there unless the flipped one wasn't tied down, and even then. I've lived and worked through many hurricanes, two of them Category 5, but tornadoes are scary & nasty things !! :eek::eek:
 
My old Cessna 175 was tied down when a nasty thunderstorm hit and, according to the recorded METAR, she took 74 knots from astern. The controls were locked, but rivets sheared where the elevators connected to the control linkage, there were tears in the stabilizer, etc.

Microbursts and derechos can be plenty nasty, even if they're not as strong as tornadoes.
 
Pilot135pd said:
Glads to hear your plane escaped it but very sad to see the destruction. It doesn't really look like tornado damage. A tornado wouldn't flip one plane and leave the 2 beside it sitting there unless the flipped one wasn't tied down, and even then. I've lived and worked through many hurricanes, two of them Category 5, but tornadoes are scary & nasty things !! :eek::eek:
Click to expand...

My local airport near Boston had a tornado that tore the CAP 172 mushroom anchors four feet right out of the ground while breaking the wingspars. Across the small taxiway sat the flight school fleet. They were not tied down and did not move an inch.
 
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