Can commercial airliners fly over hurricanes? When Patricia was making landfall yesterday I opened up Flight Radar 24 to see if there were any planes flying around or near it.  As I had expected, there were a couple of storm watching planes near the hurricane, but what surprised me is that there were some commercial flights that seemed to be going over portions of the hurricane...

So, I'm curious, can commercial aircraft go high enough to simply fly over a hurricane, assuming they take off and land at airports that are not effected by the storm?  Or perhaps they can only safely fly over the fringes and need to stay away from the eye?

Basically, can airliners fly over hurricanes, and if so can they fly over all of it, or just parts?
In general, no- except in emergencies or 'small' hurricanes.


Commercial aircraft usually fly around bad weather (like hurricanes), not over it.
Some of the hurricanes can reach upto 50,000+ ft height, making it all but impossible for most modern commercial aircraft to fly over them (except maybe you're flying a Concorde). Even for smaller storms, the convective process over the hurricane will cause severe turbulence, affecting overflying flights.
Even for hurricanes where the  aircraft can fly over, there is the problem of safety- What will happen is something happens (for example engine failure) and the aircraft has to descend to lower altitudes? Obviously no one wants to descend into the storm.
There are some aircraft that do fly into hurricanes for scientific experiments. These are crewed by trained (and experienced) specialists and involve a lot of detailed planning. For example, the aircraft are equipped with radar that helps in avoiding the worst parts of the storm. Still, it is risky and the aircraft is exposed to significant loads and vibrations not usually exposed in commercial service.