KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Eleven aircraft were damaged by a gustnado at the Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport in Kansas City, Missouri, per the National Weather Service in Kansas City/Pleasant Hill, Missouri.
Despite the damage, airport spokesperson Joe McBride says business is operating as usual, with planes continuing to come and go.
McBride says the planes are owned by ATD Flight Systems and are used for flight training programs. While the aircraft are typically stored in a hangar, the planes were outside due to an event happening over the weekend inside the hangar.
"Bad timing," McBride told KSHB 41 reporter Caroline Hogan.
At the scene, Hogan witnessed some of the aircraft flipped over and up against a fence.
Some flipped over, up against the fence pic.twitter.com/izI5vxLHy0
— Caroline Hogan KSHB (@CarolineHoganTV) April 20, 2023
NWS reports a line of weakening storms pushed through the metro with wind gusts between 35-54 mph.
"Along the thunderstorm outflow boundary, a weak surface circulation was noted" moving across the downtown airport around 5:55 a.m. Thursday, according to the weather service.
The strong gusts "moved, flipped or carried" the aircraft, with one moving 387 feet from its initial location to the other side of an 18-foot levee.
"The narrow path of disturbed planes corrleates to the radar-based weak circulation along the cold outflow air," NWS reports. "This type of feature, known as a gustnado, may have been responsible for the enhanced wind speeds."
No injuries were reported in the incident.
