Microburst damages hangar, airplanes at Hobby Airport

HOUSTON (FOX 26) - Strong storms overnight hitting Hobby Airport the hardest. A Jet Aviation hangar collapsing as debris was tossed hundreds of yards, wrapping around airplanes, damaging a total of eight aircraft.

The National Weather Service blaming the damage on a microburst, which is a concentrated area of extremely high winds beginning as a downdraft from the thunderstorm.

The National Weather Service says winds were around 80 miles per hour.

Those powerful straight-line winds targeting a 30,000 square foot Jet Aviation Hanger at Hobby Airport. FOX 26 learning it was sub-leased to private aviation company. 

“The hanger was anchored down...even so it was pretty much ripped apart," said Dan Reilly, Warning Coordination Meteorologist with the Houston National Weather Service.

Jet Aviation saying its hangar sustained “significant damage due to high winds," in a statement. A total of eight aircraft were also damaged.

“Four of them inside the hangar that was damaged, three parked outside and one inside one of the smaller hangars," said Bill Begley, Public Information Officer with the Houston Airport System.

“There was also an aircraft that had been pivoted around, lifted a little bit, with sheet metal underneath,” said Reilly. 

Crews spending the afternoon cleaning up the debris, some of it tossed more than 200 yards south of the hangar.

Along that path of these straight-line winds, fences standing no chance and shingles tossed off one roof as the storm blew through. Clearly, the worst of it was at Hobby, where estimated damage costs easily be in the millions of dollars.

“We’ll probably work as closely as possible with them to help get that assessment done, and to make sure that we’re addressing any possible debris or any possible impediments to any of the air operations here at the airport," said Begley.

Jet Linx released this statement:

Our Jet Linx Houston hangar and several of our aircraft at Hobby Airfield sustained significant damage from ‘a wet microburst’ which, according to the National Weather Service, ‘produced winds up to 80 mph over Hobby Airport around 11:53 PM CDT last night.’  Our Jet Linx Houston team, alongside the FAA, Houston Hobby Airport officials and Global Aerospace are currently assessing the full extent of the damage.

In the meantime, Jet Linx flight operations at Houston Hobby will continue without delay or interruption. We will be operating all flights from the Jet Aviation FBO terminal, which is our already established Houston Hobby FBO partner and hangar landlord.  The Jet Linx fleet of more than 100 aircraft will ensure that Jet Linx Houston flight operations will remain fully operational. We will continue to provide updates as developments warrant.