Air Transport

The US pilot resource website Airline Pilot Central has sourced a US Federal Aviation Administration radar track sequence of the Memphis international airport main base of FedEx Express as an intense storm approached and then hit (see below).

The movie clip, which compresses an just over one hour's movements into 45s, shows the arrival of around 90 aircraft into the FedEx SuperHub, starting from 22:00 in the evening of 8 August 2003. A fast moving storm arrives from the northeast of the airport, forcing aircraft into holding patterns around the clouds. Electrostatic activity is coloured red in the sequence.

The video sequence has had its validy questioned by local residents and weather experts, noting that most storms arrive at Memphis from the southeast.

The sequence tracks the aircraft diverting around the approaching storm until it hits the hub and closes operations for over 15mins. The aircraft can be seen in holding patterns before being dispatched to divert points such as Little Rock, Arkansas.

Two hundred FedEx aircraft fly in and out of Memphis daily, including those from Latin America and the Caribbean as well as the US fleet and transcontinental flights.