New Video Conveys How Embry-Riddle Safely Relocated 62 Aircraft as Hurricane Irma Loomed

In the rainy early morning hours of Saturday, Sept. 9, 2017 – about six hours before Hurricane Irma churned into the lower Florida Keys as a Category 4 storm – 62 flight instructors at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University piloted a fleet of small airplanes to two locations in Alabama. 

The pilots, navigating 44 Cessna 172, 9 multi-engine Diamond 42, 8 Piper Arrow, and 1 Beechcraft Baron aircraft through a thick band of rain, were grateful to be hosted by Auburn University and Atlantic Aviation. 

A new video, created by David Nixon, conveys the urgency and complexity of Embry-Riddle's fleet relocation effort right before Hurricane Irma made landfall at Cudjoe Key on the morning of Sept. 10.

The fleet relocation was only one of the many steps that Embry-Riddle's Daytona Beach, Fla., campus took before Hurricane Irma made its U.S. landfall. The top priority of the emergency operations team was to ensure the safety of students first, and then to safeguard infrastructure, equipment and aircraft so that students would be able to quickly return to campus and normal operations following the storm.