When I was stationed at Keesler AFB, Mississippi, home of the USAF Hurricane Hunters, the highly trained pilots used specially buttoned down C130s and cinched down very tight - and got bounced around like a pea in a boxcar. As a pilot, I was trained to avoid certain kinds of winds - thunderstorms, "roll clouds", etc. and modern meteorological services (NOAA, for instance,) and land-based and aircraft radar now make it easier to know where these wind forces are and avoid them.

NO decent airline will send an airliner through a hurricane; they will use their sophisticated weather information and that of the aviation authorities to set a flight plan that will keep the aircraft out of harm's way - meaning away from the hurricane's violent winds - or, if necessary, ground the flight until such time as it is safe to proceed.

I sat in a 747 at the runway's end for two hours at NAN merely because the local cyclone was hitting 60 MPH or so where we were, and we had to wait for gusts and winds to quiet a bit. Jetstream winds aloft - our aircraft hit over 700 MPH ground speed en route AA DFW - FRA earlier this month - have nothing to do with cyclonic disturbances of hurricane strength, which could certainly take an engine off with the possible shear forces.

Nobody's trying to pull your leg, mate; hurricanes, typhoons, cyclones and their ilk are seriously bad things for anything in their path, including civilian aircraft; they are bumpier than your jet stream winds, to put it very mildly. Think of a 500+ MPH aircraft hitting a sidewall or shear force of, say 120 MPH across the bow... and know American will reschedule or reroute your flight as necessary.