As an award-winning scientist, Peter Dodge had made many flights in the eye of hurricanes—nearly 400. On Tuesday, the crew on the test flight that entered Hurricane Milton helped her do one more, dropping her ash into the storm like a permanent hurricane. thanks to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s radar specialist and longtime researcher.
“It’s very emotional,” Dodge’s sister, Shelley Dodge, said in an interview Thursday with The Associated Press. “We knew it was NOAA’s mission to make it happen.”
Ash was removed from the eye of the storm Tuesday night, less than 24 hours before Milton made landfall on Siesta Key near Sarasota, Florida. The flight observation log, which charts information such as location and airspeed, concludes with reference to Dodge’s 387th—and last—flight.
“He loves that aspect of his job,” Shelley Dodge said. “It’s nice. On the other hand, a storm is coming and you don’t want that for people. But on the other hand, I really wanted this to happen.”
Dodge died in March 2023 at age 72 of complications from a seizure and stroke, his sister said.
The Miami resident spent 44 years working for the government. Among his awards were several pieces of technology used to study the destructive winds of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
He was also part of the crew aboard a test flight to Hurricane Hugo in 1989 that experienced severe turbulence and saw one of its four engines catch fire.
“They’re almost out of sight,” said Shelley Dodge.
The contents of the plane were torn up and thrown over the cabin. After dumping the excess fuel and other heavy metals so the plane could continue climbing, the inspection found no major damage to the plane and continued. The plane eventually got out of the storm without any injuries to the crew, according to NOAA.
Deteriorating eye disorders eventually prevented Dodge from continuing test flights.
Shelley Dodge said NOAA had informed her when her brother’s last mission would be and she passed the information on to relatives.
“There were various times when they thought all the pieces would fit in his place but it had to be the right combination, the research plane. All that had to come together,” he said. “It finally happened on the 8th. I didn’t know for sure until they sent me an official printed document that showed where it happened in the eye.”
Dodge had advanced radar technology with a strong interest in tropical storms, according to a March 2023 obituary from NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory.
He has worked with the National Hurricane Center and the Aircraft Operations Center on airborne and ground-based radar research. During hurricane flight tours, he worked as a radar scientist and performed radar analysis. Later, he became an expert in processing radar data, the newspaper said.
Dodge’s ashes were contained in the package. Among the symbols emblazoned on it was the flag of Nepal, where he spent time as a Peace Corps volunteer teaching math and science to high school students before becoming a meteorologist.
An avid gardener, Dodge also loved bamboo and participated in the Japanese martial art of Aikido, attending a session the weekend before he died.
“He had an intellectual curiosity that never faded, even after he lost his sight,” Shelley Dodge said.
—By John Raby, The Associated Press
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