Mexico

Plane Flies Through Eye of Hurricane Patricia

While most people were evacuating to get away from Hurricane Patricia, the Category 5 storm that barrelled into the coast of Mexico Friday afternoon, a plane carrying National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration employees flew right through the eye of the storm.

The agency's Lockheed WP-3D Orion "hurricane hunter" flies right through the rain and clouds in incredible video shot Thursday by flight engineer Joseph Klippel.

The first two minutes of the video shows the approach to the eye of Hurricane Patricia, according to a NOAA representative who spoke to NBC 4 in Southern California on Friday.

In the clip's second two minutes, the plane flies through the storm itself.

Thousands have evacuated ahead of the storm, which swelled into the largest ever seen in the Western Hemisphere by Friday. 

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