On Tuesday, October 8, the research team at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) sent a longtime colleague on his final mission. Peter Dodge worked for 44 years as a federal scientist, researching storms like Milton. This week his colleagues, members of the self-named “Hurricane Hunters,” released his ashes from an airplane over Milton’s eye.

The NOAA team pierces through hurricanes with its two Lockheed WP-3D Orion four-engine turboprop aircraft. The Hurrican Hunters nicknamed the planes “Kermit” and “Miss Piggy.”

Missions last between eight and 10 hours, wherein the planes enter and exit the storm over and over again.

During in-storm research missions, NOAA Hurricane Hunters collect an array of data points. For example, they measure wind speed, air pressure, and wave height. Teams execute crewed flights, and as you can imagine, aren’t without extreme turbulence.

Dodge completed hundreds of hurricane flights, USA Today reported. Dodge suffered a stroke in 2023 at age 72. Jeff Masters, a meteorologist who spent a few years with the NOAA, told the outlet that Hurricane Milton was Dodge’s 387th and final “eye penetration.”

In the 1970s, Dodge joined the Peace Corps before serving many years at the NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory in Florida.