TERRIFYING footage shows the moment a plane is hurled around like a toy as it flies directly into the ferocious centre of Hurricane Melissa.
Meanwhile, the UK has been forced to charter flights to evacuate Brits still stuck in Jamaica as they emerge from their shelters.
The storm-chasing plane shoots directly into Melissa’s eyewall – the swirling vortex of cloud where the winds are at their peak.
Footage shows the crew from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) clinging on as the aircraft is buffeted violently.
A loud gushing sound fills the cabin, and dense white cloud is all that can be seen through the windows.
There are at least five crew onboard – all of whom brace against the rollercoaster journey – along with a Kermit the Frog mascot swinging wildly from the ceiling.
They were experiencing some of the most extreme turbulence it is ever possible to find on Earth.
NOAA were punching through the wall and into the eye of the storm – a vast 11-mile-across circle where conditions are calm.
Staggering footage has previously been shared from planes which made it inside, showing enormous vertical banks of cloud.
This is known as the “stadium effect”, because the huge steep sides encircle and dwarf the viewer.
The UK government announced on Thursday it was chartering planes to evacuate any Brits still in Jamaica who want to leave.
It’s thought up to 8,000 UK citizens were in Jamaica when Hurricane Melissa made landfall there on Tuesday with 185mph winds.
Some were tourists stranded in hotels, where they had to hunker down and ride out the freak weather.
The Foreign Office said: “All British nationals who have already registered via the Register Your Presence portal will automatically be contacted and provided with a link to the booking portal once airports are open.
“If you are a British national in Jamaica wanting to leave on a flight and have not already registered your presence, you should do so immediately.”
It said the most vulnerable people will be prioritized, meaning children and those needing medical attention.
As the clouds cleared over Jamaica on Thursday, the full extent of the destruction was revealed by aerial and satellite images.
Plains of rubble emerged – with entire neighbourhoods flattened, trees uprooted and once-bustling streets swamped.
South-west Jamaica, where the storm first hit, has suffered the worst of the destruction.
Many parts of the St Elizabeth parish have been flattened, with Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness saying the town of Black River had been “totally destroyed”.
Holness said: “The damage is great, but we are going to devote all our energy to mount a strong recovery.”
He added that “80-90 percent of roofs were destroyed”, along with hospitals, libraries, police stations, port houses and local infrastructure.
More than three-quarters of Jamaicans were still without power on Wednesday afternoon and large areas still underwater.
The Red Cross branded the ordeal a “disaster of unprecedented catastrophe”, and the clean-up operation is expected to take months.
At least 34 people are known to have died across the Caribbean, and the storm is now barrelling towards the Bahamas with winds still topping 100mph.
Confirmed deaths so far include 25 in Haiti, eight in Jamaica, and one in the Dominican Republic – though there are more people missing and unaccounted for.
It could be days before the extent of the loss of life and destruction is fully appreciated.
Most of the deaths in Haiti – the Caribbean’s most populous nation – were caused by a river which burst its banks after days of intense rain, though the storm did not directly hit the island.
Melissa will go down as one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes ever, and is officially the most powerful storm to hit Jamaica since records began.
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