I wouldn't glorify the analytics too much in this case. I'm confident that the management and the pilots made decisions that far exceeded decisions that could be made with data approximations.

Can't make decisions without data. Sure, management and flight crew deserve the lion's share, but that real-time data is probably critical for those decisions.

You know those planes have their own weather radar right?

Based on what?

> I wonder, is this a good (and incredibly positive) example of what quality real-time/near-real-time data can do for decision-making?

Yes. Obviously.

I guess what I was trying to say was, what planning was done beyond the heroic measures and decisions made by the pilots and supporting infrastructure people? I was curious as to whether this was pure bravery with an informed decision support based on data, or simply pure bravery with a little bit of luck. I am always trying to find positive examples of how data is used for good, to save lives, etc. The more we know about how we can use data for good, the more we can try to do good with data...

It's hard to say without knowing more details, like exactly what kind of avionics the plane had. Ironically, the avionics in many commercial aircraft are quite dated. The plane I fly, a Cirrus SR22, has more advanced avionics than many commercial jets. But my guess would be that that the plane was never in any real danger, and the main risk was that it could take longer than planned to turn the plane around on the ground. Then they could be stuck because the storm had moved in and they couldn't take off any more. For example, if they had blown a tire on landing, or developed any kind of engine trouble, they probably would have been screwed (where "screwed" means stuck on the ground in San Juan, not crashed). That's the sort of thing I would have been sweating about if I had been making that flight. Otherwise it was really business as usual -- the extreme end of BAU to be sure, but still BAU. Pilots have to fly around heavy weather all the time.

But yes, this flight would have been absolutely impossible to conduct safely without satellite and weather radar data, as well as good forecast models of the storm's movement.