Last updated on October 12, 2018,
Joe Raedle / Getty Images
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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