This is so cool! I have a friend who is one of the ATCs in Tuscaloosa. Normally he works the tower frequency. Anyway, he pulled the flight strip of Air Force One and gave it to me. Now I have the flight strip with all the routing, etc for AF1! How cool is that?!

Ethan,I was just south of these storms in a 757 last Wednesday - we were in a hold for 30 minutes on the Alabama/Georgia border on the arrival going into KATL because of it. I took some pictures of what it looked like from the air - I knew it was bad, the clouds were unlike anything I'd really ever seen, just this huge black wall. I'll post some of the pics as soon as I get them off the camera. I ended up delayed for 8 hours in Atlanta, we didn't take off for Tampa until 2AM - rode out the storm that hit the airport sitting in a 757-200WL on the ramp. I took video of that. Arrived at KTPA after 3AM.Really sorry to see the damage and loss of life in Tucsaloosa, Birmingham and elsewhere... terrible.

Isn't there something like a few hundred dead? Catastrophic damage from what I've seen here in Australia on the news.

Isn't there something like a few hundred dead? Catastrophic damage from what I've seen here in Australia on the news.

350+ dead last I heard and over 1000 injured. It was one of the worst storm systems in US history.

btw that "They both have some sort of contraption on the top of the SUV with antennas and other stuff" is a big &amp;@(&#036;* machine gun. Don't know why they would need those ><

btw that "They both have some sort of contraption on the top of the SUV with antennas and other stuff" is a big &amp;@(&#036;* machine gun. Don't know why they would need those ><

Might be to keep those pesky telemarketers away!?!?!? :(

This is so cool! I have a friend who is one of the ATCs in Tuscaloosa. Normally he works the tower frequency. Anyway, he pulled the flight strip of Air Force One and gave it to me. Now I have the flight strip with all the routing, etc for AF1! How cool is that?!

Ethan, glad to hear you're ok and thanks for the pics. As a former student there (I used to work at the CVS by the Big Lots a decade or so ago...which I think was destroyed), I can't believe the carnage. Glad to hear you're ok.Take care,Jeff

All the best to you, your family and friends, from CT...

Ethan, so very sorry to hear about all the losses and devastation in your area. It was heartbreaking to see and hear all the damage and of the lives lost and forever changed. God bless you and your family, and everyone there. If there's anything we can do, please let us know.About Air Force One...I was fortunate enough to get a close up view of her when I was stationed at Peterson AFB in Colorado and President Clinton came to visit. A group of maybe 50 of us were allowed to go form at the flight line as the President slowly walked down the line and shook each of our hands. Whatever you think of Clinton, his presence was awe-inspiring, and you could almost feel his piercing eyes taking a permanent snapshot of you when he shook your hand. With the bulletproof limo slowly traveled behind him, door open ready for him to dive into if he had to, all the Secret Service around, and Air Force One towering proudly in the background gleaming from every angle, I couldn't help but feel incredibly proud of my country. It's something I'll never forget.

Ethan, so very sorry to hear about all the losses and devastation in your area. It was heartbreaking to see and hear all the damage and of the lives lost and forever changed. God bless you and your family, and everyone there. If there's anything we can do, please let us know.About Air Force One...I was fortunate enough to get a close up view of her when I was stationed at Peterson AFB in Colorado and President Clinton came to visit. A group of maybe 50 of us were allowed to go form at the flight line as the President slowly walked down the line and shook each of our hands. Whatever you think of Clinton, his presence was awe-inspiring, and you could almost feel his piercing eyes taking a permanent snapshot of you when he shook your hand. With the bulletproof limo slowly traveled behind him, door open ready for him to dive into if he had to, all the Secret Service around, and Air Force One towering proudly in the background gleaming from every angle, I couldn't help but feel incredibly proud of my country. It's something I'll never forget.

I can only imagine. The power of the office, not necessarily the person who occupies it. I understand that is why everyone rises from their seats when the President enters the room. Not so much out of respect for the person, but for the office. It's a pity that my country doesn't treat the office of the Prime Minister with the same respect. With regard to aviation, it's a shame in a way that our RAAF fleet of VIP aircraft is maintained by Qantas defence Services instead of the RAAF. While it's RAAF pilots and other personnel who fly the jets and serve the PM of the day, it's just not the same as the pride that the USAF staff take in caring for and servicing the Air Force One fleet.

As promised here's some photos taken of the storms on the evening of 4/27 from the left side of Delta 1746, a 757-200 from Phoenix, AZ (KPHX) to Atlanta, GA (KATL). We were at FL350 on the south end of the storm line over Alabama when most of these shots were taken. We ended up in a hold for around 20 minutes at MOBEE on the HONIE7 STAR into KATL.The camera kept picking up crap on the window, sorry about that.The main anvil-head we could see towered above our cruise altitude. I read later that it approached FL600:The level of convective activity and turbulent mixing of the air is really evident here:More evidence of the extreme convective motion - there were these "small" pillars of cloud everywhere as we got deeper into the line:

Wow - both beautiful and scary.

Despite all the damage they can cause, I find storms fascinating. I love clouds, watching the lightnings... They are especially beautiful from above. At 30.000 feet, for example, we can see how powerful they really are. Those are some of the many reasons of why I want to study meteorology at college.

Same here - if I had an extra $3000 lying around, I'd buy a seat for a week in the tank with those guys from the Discovery Channel show Stormchasers haha.

Same here - if I had an extra $3000 lying around, I'd buy a seat for a week in the tank with those guys from the Discovery Channel show Stormchasers haha.

:( :( B) I like Stormchasers too but getting into a tornado is way too much crazy for me. I'd rather stay with the DOW crew :(.