As Hurricane Michael Roared In, Some Expensive Air Force Jets Had To Be Left Behind

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On Friday, the Air Force revealed that “a number of aircraft” had been left
behind in hangars on Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida when the state sustained
a direct hit from Hurricane Michael this week, causing what the base command
called “widespread catastrophic damage.”

The storm damaged virtually every structure on the base, tearing off roofs,
downing power lines, and destroying the hangars where planes that could not be
flown out ahead of Michael’s landfall had been sheltered. Aerial photos and
videos of the aftermath showed aircraft covered in debris inside the ruined
hangars, which were torn apart by 155 mph winds.

The more than 3,300 active-duty personnel and their 5,000 family members had all
been evacuated before the storm hit Wednesday afternoon, and there were no
injuries or casualties, the Air Force said.

Still, the widespread devastation on the base is likely to cost hundreds of
millions of dollars to repair, not counting whatever damage has been done to the
fighter aircraft that remained on the base as the storm came ashore. It may be
some time before the full impact of the storm is realized, and there was already
speculation about whether the Pentagon would scrap the base, whose facilities
the Air Force valued at $3.4 billion in 2017, rather than rebuild.

While most aircraft were evacuated to a base in Ohio, some of them had to be
left behind due to maintenance or safety reasons, the Air Force said on Friday.

Aerial images showed what appeared to be F-22 Raptor aircraft through the
destroyed roofs of the hangars.

“All of those hangars are damaged,” Air Force spokesperson Ann Stefanek told
BuzzFeed News in an email. “We anticipate the aircraft parked inside may be
damaged as well, but we won't know the extent until our crews can safely enter
those hangars and make an assessment.”

Tyndall is the home of the 325th Fighter Wing and provides training for all F-22
Raptor pilots in the US. It houses the US military’s largest group of the
stealth F-22 fighters — roughly 55 of them. Although the Air Force would not
confirm which aircraft had been left behind and likely damaged, the Air Force
Forum Facebook page, citing a source at Tyndall, said four F-22s were in the
destroyed hangars. Defense One also reported that the F-22s were left behind.

If true, it would be a major loss for the Air Force, which has only 187 of the
jets. Each F-22 is valued at between $163 million and $339 million.

Despite pledges to repair the damage, the apparent extent of the destruction
raises questions about the future of the base, with some recalling the fate of
Homestead Air Force Base in South Florida, which was decimated by Hurricane
Andrew in 1992.

Homestead was considered a showpiece for the Air Force, with 4,400 active-duty
military personnel and roughly the same number of civilian employees working on
a well-tended, 3,345-acre installation lined with palm trees.


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