A heartbreaking video shows a hurricane plane experiencing massive turbulence from Hurricane Milton

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Hurricane hunters with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had a bumpy ride as they flew a plane into the massive Category 5 Hurricane Milton as it approached Florida's west coast.

Video from Tuesday's flight showed NOAA researchers along with the agency's Commissioned Officers Corps holding the plane's interior as the storm's 155 mph (249 km/h) winds shook the plane. Outside, only the plane's wing was visible against the dark gray clouds of the storm.

The crew of the Miss Piggy flew into the massive storm to collect data to improve forecasts and increase their understanding of the storm.

“This data will then be sent to the National Hurricane Center and into the weather models to help us accurately predict this turn,” said NOAA Flight Director Sofia de Solo Flying magazine.

She said the data is “particularly important this time as the hurricane is expected to hit a populous and extremely vulnerable region that was just hit by Hurricane Helene.”

Because of the gently sloping seafloor in the Gulf of Mexico on Florida's west coast, Tampa is particularly vulnerable to storm surges.

NOAA said its planes – Miss Piggy and Kermit – would be used for “grueling” 8- to 10-hour missions.

“NOAA's two Lockheed WP-3D Orion four-engine turboprop aircraft, affectionately known as 'Kermit,' cut through the eyeball of a hurricane, buffeted by howling winds, blinding rain and fierce up-and-down winds, before settling into the relative calm of the eye As storm “Miss Piggy” occurs, explore every change in wind and pressure and repeat the often grueling experience over and over again over the course of an 8-10 hour mission,” the NOAA website explained.

The agency said the tails of the planes were equipped with Doppler radar and lower fuselage radar systems that “scan the storm vertically and horizontally, providing scientists and forecasters with a real-time view of the storm.”

“The P-3s can also deploy probes called bathythermographs, which measure the temperature of the ocean,” NOAA said.

At one point in the video, the hurricane shakes the plane so hard that equipment — as well as a researcher's phone and wallet — is thrown around inside the plane.

While such turbulence would probably send typical airline passengers tweeting to a customer service representative, researchers seem to be having a good time.

Hurricane Milton is expected to make landfall in the Tampa Bay area late Wednesday as a Category 3 storm.