Rare footage shows heart-stopping moment pilot flies into the eye of category four hurricane

A jaw-dropping video reveals the moment a brave pilot flies into the eye of a Category Four storm.

Hurricane Erin is predicted to barrel along the eastern coast of the United States, bringing strong winds, heavy rainfall and rip currents in its wake.

Temporarily weakening to a Category Three storm, Hurricane Erin has restrengthened once again, with winds reaching 130 mph, per the National Hurricane Centre.

The hurricane is currently passing the Caribbean islands, with a report from the BBC revealing that over 150,000 people in Puerto Rico have been left without power due to strong winds that have damaged electricity lines.

Hurricane Erin is currently predicted to travel past the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos islands, before heading up the eastern seaboard of the US later in the week.

Hurricane Erin is not currently forecasted to make landfall.

Meanwhile, researchers are keeping an eye on the storm to monitor for any significant changes to its strength or trajectory, a job which involves getting up close and personal with the hurricane.

For the overwhelming majority of us, when a storm approaches, the advice is usually something along the lines of 'get the hell out of there' – however this doesn't apply to the hurricane hunters of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the US Air Force.

In fact, their job can include doing the exact opposite, flying towards the extreme weather while the rest of us hurry away.

In one particularly wild clip shared by crews monitoring the rapidly changing hurricane, we got an exclusive look at the eye of Hurricane Erin after it intensified to a Category Five storm over the weekend.

Take a look at the wild moment in the video below:

Surprisingly, things look almost peaceful as they eye head through the eye, before colliding with the violent side of the hurricane moments later.

Why do hurricane hunters fly into the eye of a storm?

Watch any film or TV show which includes hurricanes, cyclones or tornadoes and you'll know that it's not a place you want to be.

So why are there teams of people who do exactly that as their job?

According to the US National Weather Service, hurricane hunters fly in aircraft specially designed to withstand high winds and are crucial to collecting accurate data about storm.

By flying into the centre of the storm, hurricane hunters are able to measure central pressure and wind speeds around the eye (via NOAA).

Why is it calm in the eye of a hurricane?

Hurricanes consist of three major components: the eye, the eye wall, and the outer rain bands.

The eye of a storm is deceiving, with the structure of hurricanes meaning that blue skies, low winds and clear skies are found here, giving the appearance of relative safety.

However, this is deceiving, as the eye is surrounded by the eye wall, which holds the storm's strongest and most destructive winds.